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HISTORY OF 



Bourbon County, 



KANSAS. 



TO THE CLOSE OF 186S. 






By TV F. R O B L E Y. 



FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 
1894. 






Copyright: 

By T. F. RoBi^EY, Fort vScott, Kansas. 

1894. 






PRESS OF_ 

The Monitor Book & Printing Co., ' 
Fort Scott, Kansas. 



CK 



I fi? 



INTRODUCTION. 



J 



FN preparing this book I have departed in many par- 
B ticulars from the ordinary course and established 
custom of compilers of county histories. I have 
endeavored to give the causes which led up to our 
^ early troubles, and to delineate, to some extent, 
the public sentiment and feeling of given periods. 
I have kept in touch with the various Territorial Gov- 
ernments, Administrations, Legislatures and prominent 
public men, in order that the reader may have an intel- 
ligent understanding of the situation. I have intended 
this book to be of refreshing interest to the old settler, 
and to be especially interesting and instructive to the 
young men and women of Bourbon County. 

T. F. ROBLEY. 
Fort Scott, Kansas, December, 1894. 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I.— Louisiana Purchase— Missouri Territory— Mis- 
souri Compromise — Platte Purchase — Santa Fe Trail — 
Cherokee Neutral Lands — New York Indian Lands 8 

CHAPTER II.— Fort Scott Located— Colonel H. T. Wilson- 
Sergeant John Hamilton — Military Road Completed — Bar- 
racks Erected — Relics of a Past Era 17 

CHAPTER III.— Annexation of Texas— Mexican War— Wilmot 

Proviso — Compromise of 1850 21 

CHAPTER IV.— 1853- Postof Fort Scott Abandoned— Some of 
the Early Settlers of Bourbon County— Time from 1854 to 
1855 — Description of Frontier Life — Climate — Indian 
Summer 29 

CHAPTER v.— 1854— Mill of the Gods— Kansas-Nebraska Bill 

— Kansas Territory Organized 33 

CHAPTER VI. -1854— First Governor— First- Elections— First 
Fraud — First Legislature — Bogus Statutes — Samples of 
Legislation — Government Buildings Sold 42 

CHAPTER VII. — 1855 — Bourbon County Organized First 

County Officers— Neutral Lands in Bourbon County — Fort 
Scott Incorporated as a Town — More Elections — Second 
Governor — Political Atmosphere of Bourbon County 53 

CHAPTER VIII— 1856— Tone of Pro-slavery Papers— Topeka 
Constitution — Trouble Commences— Texas Rangers — Expe- 
dition to Middle Creek— Topeka Legislature — Governor 
Shannon Resigns — Governor Geary Appointed— Territorial 
Legislators for Bourbon County— Close of 1856 60 

CHAPTER IX.— 1857.— Bourbon County Officials— New Towns 
— Sprattsville— Mapleton — Rayville— Means of Communi- 
cation 64 



vi SYNOPTICAL INDEX. 

PAGE 
CHAPTERX.— 1857— Some More Politics— Dred Scott Decision 

— Slaves in Bourbon County— Governor Geary Resigns — 

Governor Walker Appointed— More Immigrants — Fort Scott 

Town Company — U. S. Officers — Tenderfeet — Free State 

Hotel 77 

CHAPTER XI.— 1857— Public Sentiment— Lecompton Consti- 
tution — Election of October 5, 1857 — More Trouble — 
Squatter's Court — Protective Society 86 

CHAPTER XII.— 1857— The Conservatives— U. S. Troops at 
Fort Scott — First Election on Ivccompton Constitution — 
Close of 1857 90 

CHAPTER XIII.— 185S— The Second Election on Lecompton 
Constitution — First Newspaper Established - First Grand 
Ball — Trouble Begins Again — Object Lesson in Surgery — 
Origin of Jayhawker 96 

CHAPTER XIV.— 1858— First Manufactory in Fort Scott- 
Marmaton Town Company — Uniontown — Leavenworth 
Constitution — English Bill — Jayhawking Reduced to Plain 
Stealing — Fight with U. S. Troops 104 

CHAPTER XV.— 1858— Some Old Settlers of 1858— Improve- 
ments Begin — Border Ruffians have an Inning — Marais des 
Cygnes Murder — Efforts at Capture — Effects on the Border 
—Feeling Against Fort Scott 114 

CHAPTER XVI.— 1858— Public Meeting- Election by"Tail- 
ment" — Meeting at Rayville — Protocol of Peace — Mont- 
gomery Sized Up 119 

CHAPTER XVII.— 1858— Some More Arrivals— After the Am- 
nesty — Improvements Continue — Exit Lecompton Consti- 
tution — Kansas is Free 125 

CHAPTER XVIII.— 1858— Territorial Election Governor Den- 
ver Resigns — Samuel Medary Appointed — Amnesty Broken 
— Ben Rice Arrested — Meetingat Rayville — Release of Rice 
—Death of John H. Little 133 

CHAPTER XIX.— 1859— Militia Organized— Jayhawkers Cap- 
tured — Lawrence and Fort Scott get Acquainted — Amnesty 
Law — County Seat Moved— Preparing for Another Consti- 
tution—An All Around Good Year 141 



SYNOPTICAL INDEX. vii 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XX — 1859— Delegates to W3'andotte Convention 
— Big 4th of July — Grand Ball— Fort Scott Democrat 
Revived — Vote on the Wyandotte Constitution — Other 
Election Items . . 146 

CHAPTER XXI.— 1860— Legislature Meets— Dayton Incor- 
porated — Fort Scott Town Company Incorporated — Fort 
Scott Incorporated as a City — First City Election — County 
Election — Last Border DiflSculties — Law Inaugurated. .... 151 

CHAPTER XXII.— 1860— Arts of Peace— Population— First 
Fair Association — N. Y. Indian Lands— ^Neutral Lands — 
Troops Arrive — Land Sales — The Great Drouth 160 

CHAPTER XXIII.— 1861— Kansas Admitted— State Govern- 
ment — City Affairs — Impending Crisis — Public Meetings 
— War — War Feeling in Bourbon County — First Troops Or- 
ganized 168 

CHAPTER XXIV.— 1862— Fort Lincoln Fortified— Troops Con- 
centrated — -Battle of Drywood — 6th Kansas — Fort Scott a 
Military Post — More Politics 1 74 

CHAPTER XXV.— 1862— Movement of Troops— Various Items 
—Fall Elections 178 

CHAPTER XXVI.— 1863 -County Seat Returned to Fort Scott 

—City Hall— Elections— County Officers 182 

CHAPTER XXVIL— 1864— Political Feeling— Fortifications 
— Raids on Drywood — Railroads — Politics — Price Raid — 
Raids by Guerillas — Marmaton Massacre — Fort Scott in 
Suspense — Public Meeting— General Election 198 

CHAPTER XXVIII.— 1865— Lincoln— City Election— Muster 
Out — The Schools— Business and Improvements— Fall Elec- 
tion — Statistics — Population — The Close 210 



HISTORY OF 

Bourbon County, Kansas, 



By T. F. ROBLEY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

iNE of the most important events in the history of 
^^ the United States was the purchase of Louisiana 
Territory from the Republic of France. The 
treaty of cession was concluded at Paris on the 
30th day of April, 1803, by and between the min- 
isters of President Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon 
Bonaparte, then First Consul of France. The far- 
reaching effects of this cession on the future of the 
whole civilized world, and its immense advantages to 
the United States as a Nation, can scarcely be realized. 
By this acquisition the United States added to its terri- 
tory 1,160,577 square miles to the 820,680 square miles 
of the original thirteen colonies, for which it paid a 
sum amounting to less than twenty million dollars. 
By this acquisition it added a grand inter-oceanic zone. 



2 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

reaching down from the rugged coast of the North 
Pacific to the crescent shore of the Gulf; down from 
the regions of eternal snows to the clime of eternal 
flowers. 

The Republic moved at once into its place on the 
map of the world as a Power of the first class — a 
Nation with a big N. This was one of the few grand 
victories won by the pen instead of the sword. 

Conceive, if you can, the consequences if President 
Jefierson, without the authority of Congress or of con- 
stitutional law, had failed at the supreme moment to 
say, in eflfect, to Bonaparte, '■'■VEtat c' est mot.'''' "I 
will take it." 

England would undoubtedly have taken it from 
France as she had successively taken Canada, Cape 
Breton, New Foundland, Nova Scotia and portions of 
Asia, and as she finally from Napoleon "wrenched the 
the sceptre with an unlineal hand." The fear that this 
territory would ultimately fall into the hands of Eng- 
land, coupled with his great need of money at that 
time, induced Bonaparte to make the proposition to 
Jefferson to sell the entire province, just as he had 
acquired it only a short time previously by retrocession 
from Spain. And Jefferson, realizing its vital import- 
ance to his country, and also the danger of delays, at 
once closed the bargain on his own responsibility, as 
has been seen, without the authority of the constitution, 
which made no provision for incorporating foreign 
territory, without the authority of Congress, which was 
not then in session, but by an act as arbitrary and auto- 



MISSOURI TERRITORY. 3 

cratic as could have been done by the Czar of Russia. 
On that subject Jefferson himself wrote : 

"The less that is said about any constitutional diffi- 
culty the better. Congress should do what is necessary 
in silence. I find but one opinion about the necessity 
of shutting up the Constitution for some time." 

Nevertheless, for that act alone, if for no others, 
future generations of his countrymen will place his 
statue the very next to Washington's in the line of 
historic marbles. 

The territory was bounded on the east by the Missis- 
sippi river south to the 31st parallel — about one degree 
north of the city of New Orleans — thence east to the 
Pardido river, which is now the west boundary of 
Florida. The west country was the east and north 
boundaries of Texas to the looth meridian ; thence 
north to the Arkansas river ; thence along the Arkan- 
sas river to the "divide" of the Rocky Mountains to 
and along the io6th meridian, to and along the 42nd 
parallel to the Pacific ocean. The north line being the 
present boundary between the British Possessions and 
the United States. 

MISSOURI TERRITORY. 

In 1812 the territory then known as the Territory of 
Orleans was admitted into the Union as the State of 
Louisiana, and by act of Congress in June, 181 2, the 
balance of the Louisiana purchase became the Terri- 
tory of Missouri. In March, 1819, the Territory of 
Arkansas was created. 



4 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

By act of Congress known as the Missouri Compro- 
mise, approved March 6th, 1820, the Territory of 
Missouri was erected with a view of admission as a 
State. 

Section 8 of that act provided that in all territory 
north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, 
not included within the limits of the contemplated 
State of Missouri, slavery should be forever prohibited. 

PLATTE PURCHASE 

The west boundary line of the State of Missouri, as 
designated by that law, was as it now exists, except 
that from the mouth of the Kaw river the line ran due 
north to the Iowa line, instead of the Missouri river 
forming the boundary as now. This territory between 
the due north line and the Missouri river was known as 
the "Platte Purchase." In June, 1836, Congress 
passed a law adding the Platte Purchase to Missouri, 
and this tract of land became slave territory, in direct 
violation of the compromise of 1820. 

SANTA FE TRAIL. 

By an act of Congress of June, 1825, Major Sibley, 
of the United States Army, was appointed to survey 
and establish a wagon road from Independence, Mis- 
souri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, known as the Santa 
Fe Trail. This was the first highway of civilization 
to penetrate this then unexplored and silent desert. 



CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS. 5 

And this within the memory of our old men ! But we 
will go into no retrospect here. Get on a Santa Fe 
train, which passes over subtantially the survey made 
by Major Sibley, and the retrospect will come to you 
much more forcibly than it can be written. Consider 
that, then the valleys of the Kaw, Marias des Cygnes, 
Neosho, Marmaton and Paint Creek were the favorite 
hunting grounds of the Osages, Cheyennes and Arapa- 
hoes. The wolves, deer, antelope and the migratory 
buffalo roamed the wild prairie unfettered by wire fence 
and unbalked by railroad crossing. And that only 
seventy-five years ago. Even thirty years ago they 
had not yet departed from the now confines of Wichita's 
additions. 

CHEROKEE NEUTRAL LANDS. 

About 1825 t^^^ government began locating the 
various tribes of the more nearly civilized Indians from 
the East and South on reservations, by cessions, trades, 
treaties, removals and retrocessions, up to about the 
year 1852. In 1828 a treaty was made with the Cher- 
okees, of Georgia, by which they were given the terri- 
tory known as the Cherokee Nation, with a promise 
also of the payment of $450,000. But this money was 
never paid them, and in 1835 a supplementary treaty 
was made by which they were granted, in lieu of said 
sum of money, a tract of land bounded and described 
as follows : 

" Beginning at the northeast corner of the Cherokee 
Nation; thence north along the Missouri state line 
fifty miles; thence west twenty-five miles; thence south 
fifty miles; thence east to the place of beginning." 



6 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

This tract, twenty-five by fifty miles was intended to 
contain 800,000 acres. 

This grant has always been known as the "Cherokee 
Neutral Lands." It is said that the reason it was so 
called was that the Cherokee Nation was slave territory 
and the Cherokees being slave holders, they preferred 
to have neutral ground between their nation and the 
free territory north of 36° 30', as provided for by the 
Missouri Compromise. Consequently, instead of the 
money due by the provisions of the treaty, they chose 
in lieu thereof this "Neutral Land" as a bulwark 
asfainst freedom. 

As these lands were partly contained in Bourbon 
County, occasion will be taken to refer to them further 
along in regular chronological order. 

NEW YORK INDIAN LANDS. 

On January 15th, 1838, the government set apart to 
the various tribes of New York Indians a tract of 
country described as follows : 

"Beginning at the west line of the State of Mis- 
souri, at the northeast corner of the Cherokee tract and 
running thence north along the west line of the State 
of Missouri twenty-seven miles to the southerly line 
of the Miami lands; thence west so far as shall be nec- 
essary by running a line at right angles and parallel to 
the west line aforesaid to the Osage lands, and thence 
easterly along the Osage and Cherokee lands to the 
place of beginning; to include 1,824,000 acres." 

This land was intended as a future home for the In- 
dians of New York. These various tribes of New 



NEW YORK INDIAN LANDS. 1 

York Indians, consisting of the remnants of the Sene- 
cas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Oneidas, St. 
Regis, Stockbridges, Munsees and Brothertowns, were 
called the "Six Nations." 

As will be seen the balance of what is now Bourbon 
County was contained within this tract of New York 
Indian lands. 

But it was never occupied by the tribes mentioned, 
there having been but thirty-two allotments made to 
them of 320 acres each, which were all on the Osage 
river. 

As this tract was not a grant in fee simple, like that 
to the Cherokees, but designed to be allotted in 
severalty to individual members of the tribes, and as 
only thirty-two of them came west to receive their 
share, the remainder of the tract finally reverted to the 
United States. 

Ivieutenant' John C. Fremont in June, 1842, left 
Chouteau's trading post on the Marias des Cygnes 
river, in what is now Linn County, on his first expe- 
dition to the Rocky Mountains. He was accompaniedj 
by Kit Carson as guide. ' 

We now have a clear idea of the condition of things 
in this country — physically and politically — as they 
existed in that early day. The United States had 
acquired a clear and unquestioned title to the domain; 
many of the tribes of Indians in the Eastern and 
Southern States, who were in the way of the rapidly 
increasing population, had been given, and located on, 
large tracts of land in this worthless, sterile desert, 
totally unfit for the habitation of the white man, as it 



8 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

was believed, where they could quietly work out their 
own extinction. 

The Nation was on a solid and enduring foundation; 
peace reigned supreme, and, better than all, the 
troublesome, vexatious and dangerous question of Af- 
rican slavery had, in the minds of all men, been settled 
peacefully, finally and forever. 



eJ^gil 



i-f- 



FORT SCOTT LOCA TED. 



CHAPTER II. 

FORT SCOTT LOCATED. 

N the year 1837, ^Y ^^ order of Colonel Zachary 
Taylor, a military Board of Commissioners, con- 
sisting of Colonel S. W. Kearney and Captain 
Nathan Boone, of the ist U. S. Dragoons, was 
appointed to lay out a military road from Fort 
Coffey in the Cherokee Nation to Fort Leavenworth 
on the Missouri river, and to select a site for a new 
Post to be located somewhere nearly midway between 
those two points, for the accommodation of the garri- 
son at Fort Wayne, a post then existing near the 
Arkansas line, about fifty miles south of the northeast 
corner of the Cherokee Nation, which it had been de- 
cided to abandon. 

In reference to the location of the new post, the 
commission reported much difficulty in fixing upon a 
site. Several points were examined along Spring river. 
Their first choice seems to have been at the place of 
Joseph Rogers, a Cherokee Indian, living near the 
present site of Baxter Springs. But Rogers thought 
he was in the midst of a " boom," and he asked them 
$1,000 an acre for what laud they would need of his 
claim. They were not authorized to pay any such 



iO HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

sum, and considering also that it was more desirable to 
locate the site on land not granted to Indians, they 
moved on further north. 

Bearing on the question of the selection of a site, a 
copy is given of a letter from the War Department, as 
follows : 



"Mrs. H. T. Wii^son, 

Fort Scott, Kansas. 

Madam : 

Replying to your inquiry of the 6th inst. as to who 
selected the site of the military post at Fort Scott, 
Kansas, I have the honor to inform you that the site 
was selected in 1837 by a Board of Commissioners, 
charged with the duty of laying out a military road 
from Fort Coffey to Fort Leavenworth, consisting of 
Col. S. W. Kearney and Captain Nathan Boone, ist 
Dragoons. Their report will be found in H. R, Doc. 
No. 278, 25th Congress, 2d Session, which report is too 
lengthy to be copied. 

There was some considerable difficulty in fixing 
the site for the Fort Wayne garrison. The first point 
selected was at Rogers' place on Spring river, but was 
abandoned on account of the exorbitant price demand- 
ed by its owner. Several other points in the immedi- 
ate neighborhood, and up the Pomme de Terre or 
Spring River, to the State line were examined, but 
decided to be unhealthy. All the several points were 
examined by Captain Moore, and other sites in that 
vicinity had been previously examined by General 
Taylor; and it was only after these different sites had 
been determined as impracticable, that the position on 
the Marmaton, which had been previously recom- 



FOR r SCO TT L OCA TED. 1 1 

mended by the Board in 1837, was finally decided upon 
as a site for the new post. 

I am, Madam, Very Respectfully, 

Your Obedient Servant, 

J. C. Kelton, 
Act'g Ass't Adj't General." 

Considerable time was now consumed, presumably 
in the process of red tape and in construction of the 
military road from Fort Leavenworth south, so that it 
was not until the 26th day of May, 1842, when the 
garrison of Fort Wayne abandoned that post and took 
up their march for the North. They arrived at the 
new site which had been selected on the Marmaton 
river on the evening of May 30th, 1842, where they 
pitched their tents and called it Fort Scott. 

These troops consisted of Captain B. D. Moore, in 
command, Lieutenant William Eustis, Assistant Sur- 
geon Dr. J. Simpson, and 120 enlisted men of compa- 
nies A and C ist U. S. Dragoons. 

This command was soon after ordered on to Fort 
Leavenworth, and were replaced here by a part of the 
ist Infantry. The officers with the infantry command 
were Major Graham, Captain Swords and Assistant 
Surgeon Dr. Mott. 

Concluding the subject of the location of Fort Scott, 
Adjutant General L. C. Drum of the War Department, 
writes as follows: 

"In reply to your letter of the 27th ultimo, address- 
ed to the Secretary of War, asking certain information 
regarding the early settlement of Fort Scott, I have 
the honor to inform you that Fort Wayne, in the 



12 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

Cherokee Nation, was abandoned on the 26th day of 
May, 1842, and companies A and C, ist Dragoons, 
(which had formed its garrison) under the command 
of Captain B. D, Moore, ist Dragoons, three officers 
and 120 enlisted men, marched to and occupied the 
new site which had been selected on the Marmaton 
river, twenty miles west of Little Osage Posioffice, 
on the 30th of May, 1842, to which they gave the 
name of Camp Scott, changed later to Fort Scott. The 
only other officers present with the command on that 
day were Dr. J. Simpson, Assistant Surgeon, and First 
Lieutenant William Eustis. 

I have the honor to be Very Respectfullv, 
Your Ob' t Serv't, 

L. C. Drum, 

Adjutant General." 

An army sutler came with the ist Infantry named 
John A. Bugg, who, by virtue of his position, acted 
as postmaster. 

COL. H. T. WILSON. 

On the 13th of September, 1843, Hiero T. Wilson 
came up From Fort Gibson, where he had been located, 
and went into partnership with Mr, Bugg in the sutler 
business. They did business together until 1849, when 
Mr. Wilson bought out Mr. Bugg and he went to Cali- 
fornia. Mr. Wilson then became the sutler and U. S. 
Postmaster. 

Col. Wilson, as he was always called, was born in 
Kentucky on the 6th day of September, 1806. He 
went to Fort Gibson as sutler of that post soon after it 
was established, and remained there about nine years, 



COL. H. T. WILSON. 13 

when he came to Fort Scott, as stated, in 1843. ^^ 
lived here continuously from that time to the time of 
his death, August 6th, 1892. He was married to 
Elizabeth C. Hogan, on the 28th of September, 1847. 
They had three children, Virginia T., Elizabeth C. and 
Fannie W. Virginia, the eldest daughter, now Mrs. W. R. 
Robinson, was the first white child born in Fort Scott. 

In Col. Wilson's residence in Fort Scott of nearly 
fifty years, he filled a prominent place in the political, 
social and commercial history of this part of the 
country. He saw the insignificant military station, 
and the wild and almost unknown surrounding coun- 
try, with few bona fide white inhabitants nearer than a 
hundred miles, pass through all the panoramic changes 
from extreme frontier life to that of high civilization. 
For many years his only associates were the few army 
officers of the garrison; their days were j)assed with 
few incidents or recreations, and at night they went to 
sleep to the monotone howls of the prairie wolf. 

After the Territory was organized Col. Wilson occu- 
pied many political positions, and although he was not 
what may be called active in politics, he was always 
consulted, and had great influence in the councils of 
his party. He was originally a Whig, and had great 
admiration for Clay and Webster, but after their day 
he associated himself with the Democratic party, and 
during the war was a strong Union Democrat. During 
the 6o's he was very active in promoting the organiza- 
tion of the various railway companies forming to build 
roads into Southern Kansas, and active in his efibrts to 
secure their construction to Fort Scott, which town 



14 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

was always his pet and especial hobby. He was also 
actively engaged in large mercantile affairs until 1868, 
when he quit business. His life work was done. He 
passed the remaining days of his ripe old age in the 
peaceful calm of the home he had established so many 
years ago. 

SERGEANT JOHN HAMILTON. 

Sergeant John Hamilton of the Ordnance Depart- 
ment of the army, came with the first troops, served 
his term of enlistment and remained a resident of the 
town and country until after the war. He superin- 
tended the construction of a good portion of the military 
barracks, stables, etc., erected at Fort Scott in 1843 
and 1844. 

The military road from Fort Leavenworth was com- 
pleted about 1843. The pike, or grade, like a railroad 
grade, was constructed across all river and creek bot- 
toms, and can still be seen across the Marias des Cygnes 
bottoms south of the Trading Post, and also across the 
Marmaton bottom at the Osbun farm northeast of Fort 
Scott. 

BARRACKS ERECTED. 

In the year 1843 preparations were made for the con- 
struction of quarters for the officers and men, and the 
necessary buildings for the quartermasters and com- 
missary stores, ordnance supplies, etc. A saw mill was 
erected about a mile up Mill Creek to be run by water 
power. This mill gave the creek its name. A brick yard 
was made near the mill. Then a detail of men from the 



BARRACKS ERECTED. 15 

infantry was kept busy making brick, and sawing lum- 
ber from the walnut, oak an ash logs cut from the 
surrounding timber on Mill Creek and Marmaton, which 
was very fine. Large trees, from one to four feet in 
diameter were plentiful. A square called the Parade 
Ground, now called the Plaza, was laid off, containing 
about two acres of ground. It was evidently intended 
that the points of this square should be due north and 
south, and east and west, but they miscalculated by a 
few degrees. 

Around the northest side of the Plaza the buildings 
for the ofl&cer's quarters were erected. These consisted 
of four large double houses, 2^2 stories high, with 
frame-timbers of oak twelve inches square, walnut 
siding and oak floors. The doors, door frames, lintels, 
window^s, mantel-pieces, etc., were of two-inch walnut. 
The four blocks built for the ofiicer's quarters are still 
standing, as good as ever. They were built in the 
uniform style of architecture which prevailed at all 
military posts at that time,, and are very superior in 
construction. The most striking feature of these 
buildings is the broad porches extending along the 
entire front and also the rear of each, between the 
second and third floors, reached by broad flights of 
stairs at either end. The main roof projects and con- 
tinues down over them from the attic story, and is 
supported by seven large doric columns fourteen feet in 
hight. These columns were made of solid walnut logs 
turned down into perfect shape and then bored through 
the center lengthwise to prevent checking or cracking 
when the columns seasoned. 



16 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

On the other sides of the Plaza, were the buildings 
for quarters for the men, hospital, guard house, stables, 
etc., and in the center of the Plaza was an octagonal 
brick building for powder magazine. A well 90 or 100 
feet deep was blasted down on the Plaza, which fur- 
nished a fair supply of water. 

After all this work was completed the soldiers had 
but little to do, except an occasional scout, the guard- 
ing of supply trains, and their daily drill which took 
place sure., without fail, on all occasions and under all 
circumstances. The rest of the time until taps, they 
could play seven up, or perhaps straight poker. You 
may not quite understand what that extinct species 
of the game was. Well, they didn't draw. That was 
the Mississippi steamboat game you have heard so much 
about. It has been humed and will never, never be 
exhumed. But it was part of western life at that time, 
in the army, in the cabin on the prairie and in the 
"cabin'' on the river. 

RELICS OF A PAST ERA. 

Those Government buildings erected fifty years ago 
stand to-day, and will stand indefinitely, as the relics 
and emblems of a past era. The mind can hardly 
conceive the vast changes which have taken place 
in this country during the half-century since they 
were erected. At this line pf latitude the western 
limit of the United States was the Arkansas river 
instead of the Pacific ocean. The boundary line of 
the Nation was almost exactly 150 miles west of 



RELICS OF A PAST ERA. 17 

Fort Scott. California, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico 
and Texas had not then been acquired. The country 
towards the setting sun west of the Missouri State 
line was called, in a general way, the "Indian 
Country." It was wild, desolate, silent, unknown. 
The people, even those living the nearest to it believed 
it to be a worthless barren plain, incapable of supporting 
a white population and fitted only for the home of Ind- 
ians and wild animals. These had possession then, and 
it was presumed they would never be disturbed. An 
occasional pioneer might " 'low it was gitten too much 
crowded" in his neighborhood, and move on a little 
further up the creek, but the idea of a general settle- 
ment of the country had not been considered. They 
concluded that the limit was about reached, and that 
the country was fringed with a frontier that would 
remain longer years than they took the trouble to think 
about. 

But war was soon to send the volunteer soldiers 
trailing across it, enlightening them by actual contact, 
and through them the people, as to the great possibili- 
ties of this region as a habitable country. The boundary 
lines were to be adjusted and this country, instead 
of being on the very outer rim, was to become the 
geographical center of the Nation. 



18 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. 



CHAPTER III. 

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS — MEXICAN WAR. 

■S'T?HE year 1844 passed without much incident bear- 
§Ml ing directly or indirectly on the future of this 
section of the country. The Republic of Texas 
was not yet quite ripe but it was rapidly maturing 
and would soon be gathered into the Union, and 
add its grand empire to the territory of slavery. 
This occurred the next year — 1845 — ^^^ with the 
annexation came the war with Mexico. The annexa- 
tion of Texas was the cause of the Mexican war. 
Texas claimed that its western boundary was the Rio 
Grande. Mexico claimed that it was the river Nueces. 
The United States "took the lawsuit with the property" 
and made it a pretext for a war which was essentially 
political and wholly unjustifiable. President Polk and 
his advisers saw in this war a prospect for still further 
acquisition of slave territory and the strengthening of 
the slave power. The acquisition of Texas had whetted 
the appetite of the Slave State men and the slavery prop- 
agandists; awakened the desire and renewed their deter- 
mination to absolutely control the future of the United 
States. A mere equilibrium in territory and power 
between the North and South was not enough. They 



WILMO T PRO VI SO. 19 

must have such a pronounced advantage that hereafter 
their wish would be the law, subject to no make- 
shift of a compromise. The north half of the Louis- 
iana Purchase contained too many possibilities for free 
States, and the preponderance of territory must be 
gained now. 

It is not the design to enter into the details of that 
war, but to catch the spirit which actuated the already 
powerful and rapidly increasing following of John C. 
Calhoun. It formed one of the converging lines which 
at that epoch were beginning to sweep through the 
Republic, dividing and materializing public thought 
and action, and leading up to and educating the people 
to a realization of an impending crisis. 

One of the principal events of the war, however, 
which had a bearing on the future, was the winning 
by General Taylor of the battle of Buena Vista, by 
which he at once broke the back of the Mexican army 
and overthrew the Democratic party at home; for that 
battle made him — a Whig and a restrictionist — Presi- 
dent of the United States, and put a curb, for a short 
time, on their high ambition. But the additional ter- 
ritory so much desired was gained by the acquisition of 
New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, for which, by the 
treaty of February 2, 1848, $15,000,000 was paid to 
Mexico. 

WILMOT PROVISO. 

During the war, Aug. 8, 1846, President Polk made 
an effort to stop it by a money proposition to Mexico. 



20 HIS TOR V OF BO URBON CO UN TV. 

He sent a message to Congress asking for an appropri- 
ation to pay for territory to be acquired. A bill was 
reported. David Wilmot, Hannibal Hamlin, Preston 
King and a few other Northern Democrats, who were 
not of those John Randolph called "Northern Dough- 
faces," held a caucus and decided among themselves 
that, inasmuch as Mexico had abolished slavery some 
twenty years before, all territory acquired from that 
country should come in free. Wilmot therefore offered 
the following proviso to the bill : 

'"'■ Provided^ That as an express and fundamental 
condition to the acquisition of any territory from the 
republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue 
of any treaty that may be negotiated between them, 
and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein 
appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for 
crime, whereof the party shall be first duly convicted." 

This was the historic "Wilmot Proviso." The bill 
passed the House with this proviso, but was talked to 
death in the Senate and went over the session without 
a vote. And the two Whig generals, Scott and Taylor, 
went on with the war. 

The Democratic party at that time contained no gen- 
eral officer of the army who was regarded as competent 
to conduct the war. A bill was introduced and passed 
one house authorizing the President to place Thomas 
H. Benton at the head of the army. But Benton had 
too many personal enemies in Congress and in the 
Cabinet, and the bill was finally defeated. 



COMPROMISE OF 1850, 21 

COMPROMISE OF 185O. 

Congress in 1850 resumed its efforts to organize the 
country acquired from Mexico into Territories but 
without success. The whole matter was finally referred 
to a committee of which Henry Clay was chairman. 
The report of the committee formed the basis of a 
compromise — sometimes called the "Omnibus Bill" — 
the chief features of which were the admission of Cal- 
ifornia as a free State, a territorial government for Utah 
and New Mexico, and prohibiting the slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia. 

After a protracted discussion, a bill to organize Utah 
was passed, but the other measures of the bill went 
over to the next session, when they were brought for- 
ward separately and became laws, and the wrangle 
of 1850 was thus compromised. The effect was to 
allay the excitement that had so much agitated the 
country. The minds of the people were lulled to rest, 
and as 1851, '52 and '53 passed over without more than 
a slight increase in the boil and bubble of the political 
cauldron, it was hoped by all and believed by many that 
the slavery question was NOT irrepressible. 

Outwardly, at least, all was quiet on the Potomac. 



22 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1853 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE POST OF FORT SCOTT ABANDONED. 

^"J^ORT SCOTT was garrisoned until April, 1853. 
The troops were then withdrawn, and the post 
practically abandoned. The buildings were left 
in charge of a sergeant, who, it is said, had in- 
structions to permit their occupation by any re- 
spectable parties who would take care of them. 
At any rate, they were so occupied as fast as people 
came in. H. T. Wilson and John Hamilton and their 
families were at this time the only residents and consti- 
tuted the entire population of Fort Scott. Colonel 
Wilson had the only store in this section of country. 
It was in a story and a half log house situated near 
what is now Market Square, about half way between 
the head of Main street and the lower part of National 
avenue. The few squatters within a radius of thirty 
miles or more came here to do their trading, if they had 
anything to trade. If they couldn't do any better, 
they would trade stories about happenings "back yonder 
in Kaintuckey" or "Injianny," or whatever haven of 
rest they may have come from. 

SOME EARLY SETTLERS. 

There were, of course, but few settlors up to the time 




First Cabiu Built on the Osage. 15^44. 




Post Sutler Store. 



1853] EARLY SETTLERS. 2S 

the Territory was opened for settlement in 1855. What 
few there were gravitated to the streams bordered with 
timber. They thought no claim was any account with- 
out a timber attachment. 

It is impracticable to give the names of all of the 
earliest settlers, or anything of their biography. Several 
of them left before and some after the border troubles 
began ; others before the war. 

Among the very first settlers was Isaac N. Mills, who 
located on his farm near Marmaton in 1854. He was 
born in Kentucky in 1830. 

W. R. Griffith also located near Marmaton in 1855. 
He came from Pennsylvania. He was the first Super- 
intendent of Public Schools. He died at Topeka, Feb- 
ruary 1 2th, 1862. 

Ephraim Kepley located on the Osage in 1854. He 
was born in North Carolina in 1825. He built the first 
cabin on the Osage river, in Bourbon county. 

Robert Forbes and his brother David settled near 
Dayton in 1854, from Illinois. 

D. T. Ralston, John Guttry, James Guttry, McCarty, 
Fly, Mitchell and Coyle located in what is now Marion 
township in 1855, 

J. W. Wells came in 1855 from North Carolina. 

Dr. J. R. Wasson, from Tennessee, located on the 
Osage in 1855. 

Bryant Bangness settled on Dry wood in 1855, from 
North Carolina. Wiley and Jacob Bolinger moved in 
on Mill Creek in 1855, from Missouri. Jacob Gross 
came in with the Bolingers and settled on Mill Creek 
in 1855. 



24 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1853 

William Hinton located on Osage in 1855, from Ken- 
tucky. 

Dr. T. K. Julian, from Tennessee, first visited Fort 
Scott in 1854. Then he and his son T. B. Julian came 
back to Bourbon county and settled near Mapleton in 

1855. T. B. Julian afterwards moved to Uniontown. 
Joseph Oakley, from New York, settled on the Mar- 

maton near Fort Scott in 1856. He died after the war. 

Asa Ward moved in on Moore's Branch in 1856, from 
North Carolina. 

Josiah Stewart located on Mill Creek in January, 

1856. His sons, John J. and Amos came with him. 
John J. Stewart has always taken an active and promi- 
nent part in county affairs. 

J. R. Anderson came to Bourbon county in 1856, and 
located near Xenia. 

Thomas Osborne, with his sons Robert and James 
Osborne, moved here from Indiana and settled on the 
Osage in 1855. 

John McNeil settled on the Osage in 1856. Pat 
Devereux in 1857. James and Timothy Hackett in 

1857- 

George W. Anderson and his son Jacob settled in 

Marion township in 1857. 

I. N. Crouch went into Franklin township from Mis- 
souri. Joseph Oliver moved into Marmaton in 1857. 
J. R. Myrick located near Dayton in 1857. Joab 
Teague came in 1857 from North Carolina. Samuel 
Stevenson and sons, I. S. and S. A., in 1856. 

M. E. Hudson, Wm. F. Stone, Adam Boyd, William 
Deeds, E. A. Roe, Wm. Baker, George Stockmyer, 



1854] FROM 1834 TO 1855. 25 

Michael Bowers, Henry Bowers, E. P. Higby, Ed. 
Jones, D, R. Cobb, Ben. Workman, David Claypool, 
Walker, Huffman, Hathaway, Kelso, Atwood and the 
Endicotts were all early settlers, the most of them hav- 
ing settled in this county as early as 1855. 

THE TIME FROM 1854 TO 1855. 

Up to the year 1855 were the days of profound peace 
and quiet. The people enjoyed themselves after the 
manner of the frontier to the greatest extent. They 
all had good cabins, raised by the combined efforts of 
their neighbors, which at once became palaces of hos- 
pitality — that hospitality now almost obsolete. They 
had plenty to eat — game of all kinds — deer, wild 
turkeys, prairie chickens, fish from the streams, and 
their gardens and "patches" produced all else necessary. 

As the manners and customs of frontier life are now 
things of the past, it may not be out of place to describe 
something of the mode of living among the pioneers up 
to the time the Territory was thrown open for settle- 
ment. To go into one of their cabins and take a meal 
with the family was a real satisfaction. The cooking 
was all done before immense fire-places. Cook stoves 
were not unknown, of course, but you would rarely see 
one. Their cooking utensils consisted of a big cast- 
iron skillet, with a cover made with a flange to hold 
live coals heaped on top, a tin coffee pot, possibly a 
bright tin reflecting oven, with legs, and one side open 
to be set near the fire to catch the heat, a big iron kettle 
and some smaller iron pots, a long-handled frying pan, 



26 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

iron spoons and knives and forks and some "tins." An 
ordinary water "bucket" was kept on a shelf in one 
corner, with a tin dipper or a gourd in it. Quite often 
they had instead of the bucket what many even quite 
old people of the present day have never seen. That 
is a "piggin." A piggin was made like a pail with one 
stave extending up about six inches with a rounded top 
for a handle. 

Let us drop in on one of these families, say late in the 
fall of the year, and watch the wife get supper. First, 
a good fire is made with a back log, and plenty of oak 
and hickory wood on the andirons, which is allowed to 
burn down till there are plenty of coals. In the mean- 
time a pot, hanging on the crane, containing the meat, 
is boiling. The skillet is placed on a bed of coals with 
coals heaped on the lid, and will soon be ready for 
baking the corn bread. In this instance it is corn 
bread and not dodger, the corn meal probably grated on 
a large hand grater, from new corn. It is made with 
eggs and shortening. Dodger and hoecake generally 
were mixed with eggs, venison gravy and milk also, but 
it was after supper. The meat is now taken from the 
pot, slashed across the rind, put in the reflector and 
baked brown. Big potatoes, sweet and Irish, are all 
this time lying in the hot ashes until their jackets are 
brown. The cofiee pot is on, some "rashers" are cut 
from the "flitch" of bacon and the grease tried out; 
eggs are fried, and "dip" is made. Everything is 
timed to get done all at once, like the "wonderful one- 
horse shay." Now everything is placed on the white 
clothed table, together with dishes of cold meats, ves- 



r< 




'CuME To vSuppER AM) Bring Chkkrs. 



1854] FROM 1854 TO 1853. 27 

sels of rich yellow butter, cream, sweet milk, butter 
milk and honey. Supper is now ready. If like some 
now standing on the Osage, the cabin is a double one, 
with a wide open porch between ; the men folks will 
be in the "sitting room," and ten-year-old Jimmy will 
be sent in, and will announce in a loud voice, "Come 
to supper, and bring cheers." Each man totes in his 
"cheer" and sits at the table. Probably the man of 
the house, brought up in the church of Peter Cart- 
wright, will ask a blessing. If so, it may be something 
like this : "Kind Father, we thank Thee for Thy many 
mercies. Bless these a-nourishments to our use. For- 
give our sins. Protect us from evil. And in the end 
save us, for Christ's sake." The words sounded like 
simplicity itself. Heard from the lips of an Edwin 
Booth, they would well up all the sweet idylic senti- 
ments of Saint James. 

Neighborship and hospitality were of the strong 
tenets of the pioneer's character. All were welcome at 
his house. No one was turned away hungry. Gold 
and silver he had none, but such as he had he gave unto 
all who came, the friend, the neighbor or the unknown 
stranger. 

He had but little communication with the "States." 
He had no newspapers, and his library contained only 
his old school books. Pilgrim's Progress and the Bible. 
He knew but little of politics, but he could easily drive 
center sixty yards, offhand, at the neighborhood shooting 
match, where "first choice" was the hind quarterof abeef. 
He heard more or less of the increasing and ominous 
growls over the slavery question, but not until he sud- 



i 



28 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

denly found himself surrounded by vicious partisans 
from the contending sections, did he realize that his 
season of profound peace was over, that the harbinger 
of a storm had appeared, which was destined to stain 
the lintel of his cabin door with blood. 

In these lame descriptions of our early settlers — 
squatters they were to all intents and purposes — an 
effort has been made to typify that class who kept to 
the extreme border of our frontiers, a people whose 
ancestors had steadily moved in westward front from 
the Atlantic through the "dark and bloody ground," a 
class then rapidly diminishing and who have now 
finally disappeared forever. 

This seems necessary also, in order that one may 
realize all the conditions of a given period or situation, 
and to understand how the people lived in all respects. 

THE CLIMATE. 

The climate was another feature of those days. It 
was most delightful and enjoyable, especially in the 
fall of the year. It has changed in these later years, 
for civilization seems to have taken out the "wild 
taste." The atmosphere probably contained no more 
ozone than now, but it was wild ozone. It did not 
smell to heaven laden with iron filings and the abrasion 
of gold. 

The immense prairies south and west — larger in ex- 
tent than all western Europe — were annually burned 
over. The smoke from the autumn prairie fires per- 
meated the entire atmosphere which came up to us from 



1854] INDIAN SUMMER. 29 

the grand pampas of the southwest toned down into 
superb Indian summer. But the wild prairies have 
disappeared beneath the plow, and Indian summer has 
disappeared with the Indian. 

INDIAN SUMMER. 

The beauty and grandeur of those autumn days can 
scarcely be described. One felt a lazy exhileration, 
and life here seemed the perfect ideal of existence on 
earth. The woods have unfurled a million banners, 
blended in all the colors of nature. The broad rolling 
prairies seemed as if formed by the stilled waves of a 
former and forgotten sea. The air, soft and dreamy, 
laden with the scent of wild flowers, went out to meet 
the coming day, whose rosy faced morn was ushered in 
by the songs of the mocking bird and the sweet chro- 
matic cadence of the drumming grouse. And 

"The grey ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, 
Checquering the eastern clouds with streaks of light." 

The sun makes his daily circuit through a sea of 
smoky haze, until, hanging o'er the west like a huge 
illumined globe — shielded by the translucent rays of a 
glorious corona — he sinks below the horizon to the ves- 
per song of the whipoorwill, and the gentle whisperings 
of the southwest wind. 



30 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MILL OF THE GODS. 

'qYI^t-TE have now brought up the salient points of 



'-N^^K- national history from the time when the United 
State acquired title to the domain lying west of 
the Mississippi river, insofar as they affect, di- 
rectly or indirectly, the soon to be formed Terri- 
tory of Kansas. We have noted especially the 
features affecting or bearing on the question of Slave 
Territory or Free Soil, and endeavored to mark out, like 
the "blaze" on trees through a forest for a new road, 
the many conflicting impulses which dominated the 
passions and prejudices of a great people. 

It may be said that all this is unnecessary and un- 
called for in the history of the local happenings of a 
single county. We do not think so. These local 
happenings, in fact the entire history of this county, 
was essentially and peculiarly political, brought about, 
controlled and "happened" as the resulting conse- 
quence of national politics. The history of counties 
in the old States might be written without so much 
extraneous detail. But those counties had no ancestors. 
They were progenitors. Bourbon County is their 
child. Its history cannot be truly and fairly written 



1854] THE MILL OF THE GODS. 31 

without going back to the base-line and bringing up 
the field notes. 

The Louisiana Purchase was the base-line. The 
agitation of the slavery question began almost with 
that purchase. Slow at first, but gradually increasing, 
like the dread disease of consumption, until in the 
beginning of 1854, it had become the fevered and hectic 
topic of discussion in the Northern homestead and in 
the "big house on the lawn." 

The Nationa] Legislature at that time was composed 
of the best minds of the country. The ward politician 
had not yet broken into Congress. The august Senate 
contained no resultant mouse from the parturition of 
local class sentiment, and no man of questionable per- 
sonal honor had yet gained a seat. They were natu- 
rally and necessarily strong partisans; the men from 
the South were becoming bitterly so. There was an 
underlying feeling that the North was growing up to be 
the dominant power. They realized that, however dis- 
tasteful, their candidate for the presidency must come 
from the North. Charles Sumner had enunciated the 
axiom, "Freedom is National; slavery is sectional;" 
the Northern press was using the license of printer's 
ink; the mud-sills were talking. All this angered 
them. Free speech and free press they no longer toler- 
ated. They struck out, like a blinded rattlesnake, at 
every sound. Whom the gods would destroy they first 
make intolerant. Henceforth concessions were to be 
thrown to the winds; hereafter the policy was to be 
aggression. The Fugitive Slave Law was not enough. 
The Missouri Compromise — their own child, proposed 



32 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

by them, passed by them, and approved by President 
Monroe and his cabinet, of which John C. Calhoun 
was one — now stood in their road and must be swept 
away. The protesting hands of their Clays and Ben- 
tons were raised against such action, but were struck 
down by the spirit of Preston Brooks, The mills of 
the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine. 

Tools were necessary for the work in hand, and, like 
their Presidents, they also must come from the North. 

KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 

On the 23rd of January, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas 
of Illinois, introduced a bill for the organization of the 
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. This is known 
in history as the Kansas-Nebraska bill. The important 
features of the bill, affecting the Territory of Kansas, 
are copied from Sec. 32, and are as follows : 

"That the constitution and all the laws of the 
United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall 
have the same force and effect within the said Territory 
of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, ex- 
cept the eighth section of the Act preparatory to the 
admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 
6th, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principle 
of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation 
of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, is 
hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true 
intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery 
into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it there- 
from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 



1854] KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 33 

own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States : Provided, That nothing herein con- 
tained shall be construed to revive and put in force any 
law or regulation which may have existed prior to the 
Act of the 6th of March, 1820, either protecting, estab- 
lishing, prohibiting or abolishing slavery." 

And on this Mr. Douglas addressed the Senate, out- 
lining and advocating what he called the "great 
principles of squatter sovereignty, or non-intervention." 

On the 3rd of March following, the Act passed the 
Senate by 37 to 14, and on May 22d it passed the 
House by 91 to 44, and President Pierce signed it on 
the 30th day of May. 

The South had chosen her path. "Her feet go down 
to death; her steps take hold on hell." This was the 
high-water mark of the slave power. The solemn com- 
pact that had stood for thirty-four years was swept 
away like a "rope of sand." The converging lines of 
the irrepressible conflict were being drawn closer and 
closer until the culminating point was reached at Appo- 
mattox. 

KANSAS TERRITORY ORGANIZED. 

Kansas at last had a place on the map. It had been 
partly surveyed and the boundary lines designated and 
described. A governor and other Territorial officers 
were soon after appointed, and this experiment of non- 
intervention — this child of Squatter Sovereignty — was 
set adrift, to be buffeted, smitten, disgraced, in the con- 
fident hope that she would acquiesce in the demand of 
that force which instantly jumped at her throat, and 
quietly submit to be "sealed" to the South. 

3 



34 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 



CHAPTER VL 

THE FIRST GOVERNOR. 

H. REEDER, the first Governor of Kansas Ter- 
C^^'ritory, arrived at Fort Leavenworth, and assumed 
the executive office October 7th, 1854. Soon after, 
with a party of other ofiScials, he made a somewhat 
extended tour of observation through the eastern 
part of the Territory, and on his return that por- 
tion was divided into "Election Districts," 

The district which included Fort Scott was denomi- 
nated the Sixth District, and the metes and bounds 
were described as follows : 

"Commencing on the Missouri State line, in Lrittle 
Osage river; thence up the same to the line of the Re- 
serve for the New York Indians, or the nearest point 
thereto; thence to and by the north line of said Reserve 
to the Neosho river, and up said river to and along the 
south branch thereof to the head; and thence by a due 
south line to the southern line of the Territory; thence 
by the southern and eastern line of said Territory to 
the place of beginning." 

THE FIRST ELECTIONS. 

On November loth. Governor Reeder issued a proc- 
lamation for an election to be held in the Territory on 



1854] THE FIRST ELECTIONS. 35 

the 29th day of November for the election of a Delegate 
to Congress. Fort Scott was designated as the place 
for holding the election for the Sixth District. The 
house of H. T. Wilson was named as the polling place, 
and the judges appointed were Thomas B. Arnett, H. 
T. Wilson and William Godfrey. J. W. Whitfield was 
the Pro-slavery candidate for Delegate, R. P. Finnekin, 
Independent, and John A. Wakefield Free State. In 
this district Whitfied received the entire vote cast, 105. 
Whitfield resided in Missouri at this time and made no 
pretense of being a citizen of the Territory. 

On March 8, 1855, a proclamation was issued by Gov. 
Reeder, ordering an election for members of the Terri- 
torial Council and House of Representatives, to he held 
on Friday the 30th day of March, 1855. There were 
to be thirteen members of the Council and twenty-six 
Representatives, to constitute the "Legislative Assem- 
bly" of the Territory. The vote was to be by ballot. 
As there were yet no county or other municipal organi- 
zations, the election districts were provided for in the 
proclamation. The Sixth District remained the same 
as in the election of November 10, 1854. The place 
designated for holding the polls was the hospital build- 
ing on the Plaza, and the judges of election appointed 
were James Ray, William Painter and William Godfrey. 
The proclamation also provided : 

"That the Sixth Election District, containing two 
hundred and fifty-three votes, will constitute the Fifth 
Council District, and elect one member of the Council. 
Also, that the Sixth Election District shall be the Sixth 
Representative District and elect two members." 



36 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

The result of this election was as follows : For Coun- 
cil Fifth District, William Barbee, 343 votes. For 
Representatives Sixth District, Joseph C. Anderson, 
315, S. A. Williams 313, John Hamilton 36, William 
Margrave 16. And the returns being in due form and 
no protest filed, William Barbee for the Council, 
and Joseph C. Anderson and S. A. Williams for the 
House of Representatives, were by the Governor de- 
clared duly elected. 

Nevertheless this election was grossly fraudulent, not 
only in this district, but in all others. It will be 
remembered that the district was nearly 50 by 100 
miles square. William Barbee, mentioned above, had 
been appointed the January before to take the census 
of the district, and about March i, thirty days before 
the election, filed his report giving the number of legal 
voters as 253. Many of these voters would have had 
to travel forty and fifty miles to the polling place. It 
is not reasonable to suppose that they took such a 
journey to vote. Most of the votes cast came from 
covered wagons camped on the Marmaton bottom, "for 
one day only," which Judge Margrave said, "just 
swarmed over from Missouri." But there was no pro- 
test in this district, and the men took their seats in the 
Legislature. 

Barbee had no opposition. He and Anderson and 
Williams were voted for by the Pro-slavery men. Ham- 
ilton and Margrave received the feeble showing of the 
opposition. 

William Barbee came here from Kentucky at the age 
of 29. He was a very fair man, and lived here several 



1854] THE FIRST LEGtSLA TURE. S'T 

years. Barbee street in Fort Scott was named for him. 

Joseph C. Anderson was never a resident of the dis- 
trict from first to last. He was the author of the 
"Black Laws" passed by this Legislature. 

Samuel A. Williams was originally from Kentucky. 
He came here first in 1854, and afterwards brought his 
family, about six months before election, from Polk 
County, Missouri, driving an ox cart, containing his 
family, his chickens and two "cheers." He was no 
"voter." He had come to stay. He was a good man, 
a good citizen, and held many important positions. 
He died at his home in Fort Scott, August 13, 1873. 

John Hamilton was "left over" from the regular 
army. He lived here in the town and in the county 
until after the war, as has been stated. 

William Margrave was born in Missouri, February 
17, 1818. He came here in the fall of 1854, and was 
appointed one of the first Justices of the Peace in the 
Territory, and the very first one appointed in this dis- 
trict. His commission bears date of December 5, 1854. 
He has lived here continuously ever since that time, 
and he is Justice of the Peace "'till yet." The Judge, 
in his quiet way, has always performed the duties of a 
good citizen, and always stood in the highest estimation 
in this community. Margrave street in the city of Fort 
Scott was named for him. 

THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 

The first Legislature convened by order of the Gov- 
ernor at Pawnee, near Fort Riley, on the 2nd of July, 



38 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

1855. Pawnee was 100 miles west of the Missouri 
State line at Westport. Governor Reeder said he took 
it out there to get it out of the way of political influ- 
ence and to keep the legislators unspotted from the 
world. That was certainly the right idea and the right 
place if he could have made them stay there, but he 
couldn't do it. The statesmen said it was too dry, and 
too far from their base of supplies ; and besides, as 
there were no houses in Pawnee, or in forty miles of it, 
they had to sleep in their wagons, or under them ; and 
then again they had nothing to eat but jerked buffalo 
and Pawnee macarroni. This latter was a very succu- 
lent dish much sought after by the Pawnee Indians. 
It was made from the small entrails of antelope and 
fish-worms. The origin of this war-like tribe arose 
from this dish. Most any body would. The statesmen 
arose from it. Said they liked the legislature business 
all right enough but this wasn't an adjourned session 
of the Diet of Worms ; they were not elected on that 
ticket. Said they didn't know what other Kansas 
Legislatures might do — no man in his right mind could 
tell, but as for their part they could not entertain 
such a diet, anyway, without something to go with it, 
and they didn't even have Bourbon County corn bread. 
Besides, they wanted to be nearer home where they 
could hear the honest coon-dog's deep-mouthed bay. 
So next morning they hitched up and drove down to 
Shawnee Mission, near Westport. That was as near 
home as they could get without going "plum over" 
into Missouri. Reeder could do nothing but set around 
and scratch his head and pawnee. He finally followed 



1854] THE BOGUS STATUTE. 39 

them down to Shawnee Mission. He told them they 
could not legally move, and could pass no valid 
laws if they did. They told him to be quiet or they 
would pass him — down the Missouri river on a raft. 
That made him madder than ever and he called them a 
lot of Border Ruffians. Then Stringfellow smote him 
hip and thigh, "and they wrote a letter unto the 
king," saying what a bad man this Reeder was, "and 
the king dismissed him with contumely." But the 
name give to them by Governor Reeder of Border 
Ruffian stuck to those fellows, and their kind, even to 
the third generation. Ainsi soit il. 

THE BOGUS STATUTE. 

The Legislature then went to work to pass laws for 
Kansas. It was now the i6th of July. By the ist of Sep- 
tember they had finished their labors which resulted in 
the preparation of an immense code of "laws," which 
have always been called and known as the "Bogus 
Statute of 1855." This Statute was called bogus prin- 
cipally because many of the members were not residents 
of the Territory, and they were themselves bogus ; 
the elections were fraudulent in nearly every case, con- 
sequently their office was bogus. The sessions were 
held at Shawnee Mission against the will, order and 
veto of the Governor who had the only legal right to 
decide that point, as he claimed, consequently the 
whole business really had no legal status or right to be. 
But it was the prologue of the opening drama. The 
Pro-slavery men here showed their hand and the true 



40 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

spirit and intent of their party. They at once became 
blustering, arrogant, defiant and overbearing, and con- 
tinually sought to pick quarrels with, and embroil 
every man into difficulties who opposed them. The 
few scattering and unorganized Free State men, in 
contemplation of such acts and such men, stood with 
raised and outstretched hands as if warding ofif a blow. 

SAMPLE OF LEGISLATION. 

The Legislature did more by its drastic, ill-tempered 
and senseless legislation to destroy the prospect of 
making Kansas a slave State than did all the Emigrant 
Aid Societies, John Brown and other Northern fanatics 
put together. As a sample of their legislation and to 
show the spirit which controlled the Pro-slavery side 
on the threshold of the struggle, the following section 
of their laws is quoted: 

"Sec. 12. If any person, by speaking or by writing, 
assert or maintain that persons have not the right to 
hold slaves in the Territory, or shall introduce into 
Kansas, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be 
introduced into the Territory, any book, paper, maga- 
zine, pamphlet or circular containing any denial of the 
rights of persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such 
person shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and pun- 
ished by imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less 
than two years." 

This made it a penitentiary offense for a person to 
take a Free-State paper, or to argue the question with 
a neighbor, even at his own fireside. The present gen- 
eration cannot conceive that a body of educated and intel- 



1854] SAMPLE OF LEGISLATION. 41 

ligent American men could have seriously placed such 
a law, and a hundred of similar tenor and import on 
the statute books of a State. But the indescribable 
fanaticism on the question of human slavery had made 
them, as a people, just that intolerant. 

On the other hand the Northern people, as a people, 
said to the South exactly this : We have made a con- 
stant, consistent and honest effort to restrict slavery to 
its present limits, and although the sacred compact 
which has stood for a third of a century is broken 
down, let us peacefully abide the provisions of the 
squatter sovereign principle. And we now say to you 
Southern people, and you may be fully assured that, 
although we shall not desist from those open, honest 
efforts which we have constantly made for restriction 
and which efforts will be vigorously continued to make 
Kansas a Free State, we shall neither openly or secretly 
resort to any measures which can tend to disturb the 
tranquillity of the slave States, or thereby to affect the 
prosperity of the Nation. And thus at the commence- 
ment of that most momentous era was the virgin Terri- 
tory of Kansas handed over to those two contending 
sections, who had "come to ope the purple testament of 
bleeding war." 

It looked dark for the side of Freedom. Its enemies 
controlled the Administration ; they controlled all the 
branches of the Territorial Government and they con- 
trolled the front door through which emigration must 
enter. 



42 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1854 

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS SOLD. 

The buildings erected and the improvements made 
by the Government at Fort Scott were estimated to 
have cost $200,000. They were sold at public auction 
on the i6th day of May, 1855, by Major Howe, Assist- 
ant Quartermaster of the U. S. Army, for less than 
$5,000 for the whole business. The officers quarters — 
the four principal blocks of buildings, were disposed of 
as follows : A. Hornbeck bought the first block, on the 
west corner of the Plaza for $500. H. T. Wilson the 
next for $300, E. Greenwood the next for $505, and J. 
Mitchell bought the next building on the east for $450. 
The other buildings were sold to different parties for 
nominal sums. Of course, this not being a Government 
Reservation, the title to the land on which these build- 
ings stood did not pass by this transaction, and it was 
so understood by the purchasers. But they concluded 
to "let the hide go with the tallow," and take their 
chances of acquiring title either from the Government 
as pre-emptors, or, that some time in the future when 
the town shall have been surveyed and platted, and a 
legally incorporated town company organized, they could 
obtain deeds. This plan was agreed on and was after- 
wards carried out. 



1855] BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED. 43 



CHAPTER VII. 

BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED, 

^rr?HE County of Bourbon was organized, together 
(^ with thirty-two other counties by the act of the 
Bogus Legislature contained in Chapter 30, of the 
Bogus Statutes. This Act or Chapter of that code 
was acted on and passed by the Legislature at the 
session held at Shawnee Mission, early in August, 
1855, to take effect from and after the date of passage, 
although the statutes were not compiled or completed 
and published until, probably, October 25th of that 
year. 

In Section 4 of said Chapter 30, the boundary lines 
of Bourbon County were fixed and described as follows : 

"Beginning at the southeast corner of Linn county ; 
thence south thirty miles; thence west twenty-four 
miles ; thence north thirty miles ; thence east twenty- 
four miles to the place of beginning." 

These descriptions are very nearly correct, except 
that the first sectional line is not quite parallel with 
the Missouri State line, and the border sections along 
that line are fractional, and there is a jog in the range 
line on the west side of the county. 

The Legislature, at the request of William Barbee 



44 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 

and S. A. Williams, who were both originally from old 
Kentucky, named this county "Bourbon" — especial 
brand not given. They thought, like the old boys used 
to say : "Some is better than others, but it's all good." 
So they gave it a good send off by giving it a good 
name. 

McGee county was named for old Milt McGee who 
was then a member of the Legislature, "from West- 
port, Missouri." Everybody knew old Milt way up 
to the 60' s. 

Anderson county was named for one of our first Rep- 
resentatives, Joseph C. Anderson. 

Wilson county was named for Col. H. T. Wilson, of 
Fort Scott. 

Bourbon County retained its original territory until 
by act of the Legislature, approved February 13, 1867, 
entitled, "An Act to define the boundaries of Bourbon, 
Crawford and Cherokee counties," the boundaries of 
Bourbon County were defined and described as follows : 

"Sec. I. That the boundary of Bourbon County 
shall commence at the southeast corner of the county 
of Linn ; thence run south, on the east line of the State 
of Kansas to the southeast corner of section (24) 
twenty-four, township (27) twenty-seven, range (25) 
twenty-five ; thence west to the southwest corner of 
section (23) twenty-three, township (27) twenty-seven, 
range (21) twenty-one ; thence north to the southwest 
corner of Linn county ; thence east to the place of 
beginning." 

By this act the county was cut down to about twenty- 
five miles square. 



1855] BOURBON COUNTY ORGANIZED. 45 

In the Government survey of this State the base line, 
or beginning line, for townships of six miles each was 
made the north line of the State, and townships were 
numbered from number one on down southward; and 
the range lines, also six miles apart, were numbered 
east and west from the sixth principal meridian, or 
guide meridian, which is near the city of Wichita. 

Bourbon County contains 407,680 acres of land. The 
contour of the face of the country is high, rolling 
prairie, with a general slope from west to east, the 
general direction of all the larger streams being from 
west to east, in common with the entire State. The 
west line of the State has an altitude of between 2,000 
and 3,000 feet. At the sixth principal meridian the 
altitude is about 1,000 feet. At the east line of Bour- 
bon County it is 650 feet. 

The county is very well watered. The more consid- 
erable streams being the Osage river on the north and 
through the northern tier of townships. Mill creek and 
Marmaton river through the central portion, and Paw- 
nee and Drywood creeks in the southern part. There 
is the usual amount of bottom land along these streams, 
which are, of course, very rich, but these lands are not 
especially desirable over those of the high prairie for 
farming purposes, for the reason that they are colder 
and harder to get into to work during a wet spring and 
do not stand a dry time later in the season much better 
than the high prairie, besides the high lands are, as far 
as the soil is concerned, rich enough except on some 
quarter sections scattered throughout the county on 
which the stone is too near the surface. The soil of 



46 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 

the prairie lands is, generally speaking, of a limestone 
formation and richer of itself than a sandstone forma- 
tion. Under the black soil is about eighteen inches of 
a dark brown sub-soil, then a stratum of three to eight 
feet of yellow clay, then two to four feet of shale or 
slate stone. Under that in a good portion of the county 
is a layer of hard bituminous coal from eight to twenty 
inches. This is especially true of the east half of the 
county. Under all this is a solid stratum of pure lime- 
stone from four to six feet in thickness, then comes a 
stratum of from sixteen to thirty feet of soapstone. 
Under that, on a limestone bedrock, water is generally 
obtained. These strata vary, however — and in fact the 
entire geological formation changes in certain sections 
of the country. About the central part of the county 
there are sections which are pure sandstone formation, 
which contains an almost inexhaustible supply of the 
very best quality of sandstone flagging. Limestone for 
the manufacture of lime, and for building stone is easily 
obtained in any part of the county. In Fort Scott, and 
the neighborhood, is found extensive quarries of cement 
rock, which produces the best grade of hydraulic cement. 

THE FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS. 

The Secretary of the Territory and Acting Governor 
Daniel Woodson, appointed a part of the first officers of 
Bourbon County, after its organization, on the 31st day 
of August, 1855, as follows: Samuel A. Williams, Pro- 
bate Judge, H. T. Wilson and Charles B. Wingfield 
County Commissioners, and B. F. Hill, Sheriff. And 



1855] NEUTRAL LANDS IN BOURBON COUNTY. 47 

on the 2 2d of September, Governor Wilson Shannon 
appointed J. J. Farley clerk of the Board of County 
Commissioners, or County Clerk, as we call it now, and 
John F. Cottrell, Constable, and Thomas Watkins 
Justice of the Peace for Bourbon County. 

On the 9th of November commissions were issued to 
Wiley Patterson, Cowan Mitchell, Henry Miller and 
D. Guthrie, as Justices of the Peace. J. J. Farley, 
County Clerk, was appointed Register of Deeds. 

Fort Scott was about this time designated as the 
County Seat. 

In November, 1855, the Board of County Commis- 
sioners met and divided the county into townships, as 
follows : Little Osage, Timberhill, Russell, Scott and 
Drywood. The townships as they now exist are, Osage, 
Freedom, Timberhill and Franklin on the north, Scott, 
Marmaton, Mill Creek and Marion through the center, 
and Drywood, Pawnee and Walnut on the south. 

About the close of the year 1855, B. F. Thompson 
and Branham Hill were appointed Justices of the Peace, 
Alexander Howard and William MojQfatt, constables, and 
H. R. Kelso, coroner, in and for Bourbon County. 

THE NEUTRAL LANDS IN BOURBON COUNTY. 

The county of McGee, organized at the same time as 
Bourbon, included what is now Crawford and Cherokee 
counties, and was all Cherokee Neutral Land. A six 
mile strip off the south side of Bourbon county, between 
townships 26 and 27, and between ranges 21 and 25, 
was also in the Cherokee Neutral Land. This strip is 
more exactly described as follows : 



48 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 

The south V3 of Township 26, of Ranges 22, 23, 24, 
25. The east part of south )^ Township 26 of Range 
21. The north 7^ of Township 27 of Ranges 22, 23, 
24, 25. The east part of 7^ of Township 27 Range 21. 

As will be seen hereinafter, a good part of these lands 
were squatted on by settlers in direct violation of treaty 
stipulations with the Cherokee Indians. In many cases, 
however, the squatters were innocent of any intention 
to trespass. 

FORT SCOTT INCORPORATED AS A TOWN. 

Fort Scott was incorporated as a town by Chapter 40 
of the Bogus Statutes, which chapter was acted on and 
passed by the Legislature on the 30th of August, 1855. 

Section i of that chapter provides that the land 
set forth and defined in the plat of said town shall be 
incorporated into a town by the name of Fort Scott. 

Section 4 provides that "the first Board of Trustees 
of the tov/n of Fort Scott shall consist of H. T. Wilson, 
A. Hornbeck, Thomas Dodge, R. G. Roberts, F. De- 
mint and Thomas B. Arnett." 

Section 8 provides that the trustees shall have power 
to collect taxes, regulate dramshops, to restrain and 
prevent the meeting of slaves, etc. 

But little is now known about some of the trustees. 
A. Hornbeck was a merchant. He came in from Mis- 
souri, and went back there after two or three years' 
residence here. Dodge was an Indian trader, and had 
been all his life. Thomas B. Arnett opened and kept 
the first hotel ever in Bourbon county. It was in the 



1855] MORE ELECTIONS. 49 

house on the west corner of the Plaza, known after- 
wards as the Fort Scott, or Free State Hotel. He fell 
dead one Sunday, sometime afterwards, while attending 
religious services in the Government Hospital building, 
probably because, as town trustee, he had not been 
strict enough in "regulating dramshops." 

MORE ELECTIONS. 

On the ist of October, 1855, an election was held under 
provisions of the Legislature, for Delegate to Congress. 
J. W. Whitfield was again the Pro-slavery candidate, 
and received 242 votes in this county. 

There was no Free State candidate, and the Free 
State men took no part in this election. 

A convention had been called at Topeka on the 19th 
day of September, to take measures to form a State 
Constitution. An election was held for Delegates to 
the Topeka Constitutional Convention, on the 9th of 
October. A. H. Reeder was also voted for by the Free 
State men for Delegate to Congress. The town of Fort 
Scott cast 27 votes. There appears to be no record of 
a county vote. 

The Convention met at Topeka on the 23d day of 
October. A Free State Constitution was framed, and 
an election for its adoption held on the 15th day of De- 
cember. Again there is no record from Bourbon County. 
The fact of the matter is, there were but few Free State 
men in this county at tnat time. There were not 
enough of them to form anything like an organization, 
or even a circulating chain of intelligence among them- 

4 



50 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 

selves. Each one was isolated from his kind, and lived 
like a rabbit in a burrongh. He kept his eyes and ears 
open, but he kept his mouth shut. There were less 
than 300 legal votes in the entire county, and not more 
than thirty of these were Free State men. The first 
immigration into this county was largely from the 
Southern States. The territory lay adjacent to a slave 
State, and it was natural that it should assimilate with 
the peculiar institution of the South. Further north, 
where the parties were more nearly equal in number, 
the Free State men went to the polls ; they protested, 
however vainly, against the fraudulent elections ; they 
took concerted action for self-defense. Here they could 
do neither. As yet they were in too great a minority. 
They could only sit down and wait ; wait to see how 
far and to what extent the Northern people would go to 
meet the open defiance of the maddened and blinded 
partisans of ultra pro-slaveryism ; wait for immigration 
to reach down this far and give them help. It seemed 
now to them like a losing contest. The migratory 
hordes of the Pro-slavery party had, under the faint 
pretense of "election," taken possession of the Terri- 
tory, driven out the first Governor — an able, fair and 
just man — and published to the world their statute of 
"laws," which hung over the Territory for five years 
like the web of a mammoth spider. 

THE SECOND GOVERNOR. 

Wilson Shannon of Ohio, was appointed to succeed 
Governor Reeder. He arrived at Shawnee Mission and 



1855] POLITICAL AT3I0SPHERE. 51 

assumed the duties of his office on the 7th of Septem- 
ber, 1855, 3. few days after the adjournment of the 
Bogus Legislature. 

Governor Shannon had nothing to do with the elec- 
tion of March 30th, 1855, and was, of course, in no 
way responsible for the action of either faction; and, 
although surrounded exclusively by Pro-slavery men, 
bravely endeavored, during his short administration, to 
do his duty as he saw it. 

POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE OF BOURBON COUNTY. 

The situation of Bourbon County during the years 
1855, 1856 and 1857 was peculiar. It was diflferent 
from that of any other county or portion of the Terri- 
tory. The county was away down in the southeast, 
isolated, and as yet out of the line and track of immi- 
gration, and as yet out of the way of the partisan 
troubles which held full sway in the country further 
north. There were some men — their number could be 
counted on your fingers — drifted in during these years, 
who hung around here more or less, who were of the 
very worst class; border ruffians themselves, and leaders 
above all others of that ultra, uncompromising Pro- 
slavery element whose politics was simply extermination 
— extermination of Free State sentiment — extermina- 
tion of Free State men, if that were necessary. These 
were men like Dr. Hamilton, Captain G. A. Hamilton, 
Alvin Hamilton, W. B. Brockett, G. W. Jones, G. W. 
Clark. E. Greenwood, Sheriflf Ben Hill and others. 
But few of these made any pretense to citizenship, but 



52 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1855 

made Fort Scott one of their many stopping places or 
headquarters. Their followers — their "men" — were of 
that class they, themselves, called "poor white trash." 
They were never able to own a slave and never expected 
to be. They were that grade of men who saw everything 
through the diseased perceptions of an incomplete 
nature and a smothered intelligence. The men 
from the South who came here as bona fide settlers 
to make homes for themselves and families were of a 
diflferent grade. They were Pro-slavery, and desired as 
a political question, that Kansas should come into the 
Union as a slave State. They were thoroughly imbued 
with the principles of Squatter Sovereignty, but had 
no more idea or design of a criminal crusade in order to 
accomplish their political ends than did Stephen A. 
Douglas himself. They staid here law abiding men 
during this first war; they staid here good Union men 
during the Union war, and lived and died among us 
under the flag of Clay and Benton, either the one or 
the other of whom had been their household god since 
the days of their youth. 

As for the Northern men, a few of whom were now 
finding their way into this county, they, also, were in 
some sense difierent from their brethren further north. 
They came without "aid" or other influence, except the 
desire to build up a home. They came very generally 
from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They 
were Free State men and finally voted for a Free State 
Constitution. But they were not anti-slavery in the 
sense of being Abolitionists. They did not want 
slavery; they did not want free negroes; they simply 



]855i POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE. 53 

did not want any "nigger" at all. Many of them were 
Democrats; many were Republicans; but they had no 
desire to interfere with the "peculiar institution" of the 
South further than to keep it out of Kansas. They 
came here to make Kansas a State and to make it free. 

It is not within the scope and design of this work to 
detail the historical incidents and the public acts of 
historical men or notorious characters outside of Bour- 
bon County, except insofar as they concern or affect, 
directly or indirectly our own local history. So far, an 
attempt has been made to keep in touch with the prom- 
inent men of those times, the animus of political 
parties and the social bias of the contending forces. 

It may be possible that the accurate and complete 
history of our State can only be thus prepared, block 
by block, and the checquered and mosaic tablet be 
handed down to the future as the "History of Kansas." 



eJ:l®@iiL5 



54 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TONE OF PRO-SLAVERY PAPERS 

"S'TPHE year 1856 opened in the northeastern part of the 
Wl Territory and along the Kaw valley, in turmoil, 
violence and murder. Armed factions were almost 
daily coming into the conflict. The Free State 
men were being armed and drilled for defense. 
The Pro-slavery men were being reinforced from 

South Carolina, Alabama and the entire South, for the 

openly declared purpose of overawing the Free State 

men by violence and murder. 

One sample of the tone of their newspapers at that 
time is here given. The Kickapoo Pioneer, in speak- 
ing of Free State immigrants, said : 

"It is this class of men that have congregated at 
Lawrence, and it is this class of men that Kansas must 
get rid of. And we know of no better method * * * 
than to meet in Kansas and kill off this God-forsaken 
class of humanity as soon as they place their feet upon 
our soil." 

Bourbon County had as yet but little of this disorder 
and violence. But the disturbing elements were to 
come in very soon, and peace bid farewell for many years. 



1856] TOPEKA CONSTITUTION. th 

THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION. 

The first political move of the year 1856 was the 
election of oflBcers under the Topeka Constitution, 
which took place January 15. Charles Robinson was 
the leading candidate for Governor, and M. W. Delahay 
for Congress. W. R. Griffith of Bourbon County, was 
voted for as State Auditor, but received less votes than 
G. A. Cutler for that office. Griffith was also a member 
of this Constitutional Convention. 

The Topeka Constitution was not recognized by 
Congress. The Legislature elected under it never had 
any practical existence, nor was it expected to have, or 
probably, intended to have. The conventions of Aug- 
ust 14 and September 15; the elections of October 9, 
December 15 and January 15, the Constitutional Con- 
vention and the Topeka Constitution, were intended by 
the Free-State leaders to serve — like toys given to im- 
patient children — to occupy the minds of our Free-State 
men; to solidify the growing " Anti-Pro-slavery " 
elements of all shades in the North, and by publishing to 
the world their platforms, resolutions and constitutions, 
to furnish educating exponents of the principles, policy 
and design of the Free-State party. 

As was expected, some of the ultra Abolitionists were 
dissatisfied. The word "white" was not eliminated 
from the new Constitution ; its tone was for peaceful 
solution, instead of for the aggravation of conflict as 
they desired. They kicked over the traces, but they 
were simply "cut out" and driven away. 

The Free-State leaders at this time — amonof them 



o6 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 

Charles Robinson, A. H. Reeder, M. J. Parrott, Joel K. 
Goodin, M. W. Delahay — were strong men. The Con- 
vention and the Legislature elected under it were 
composed of good and true men. They raised here the 
first signal light of Freedom, against which were already 
breaking the black, seething waves of disunion. 

TROUBLE COMMENCES. 

The first invasion into Bourbon County by the Pro- 
slavery men occurred in the spring of 1856. A party 
of about thirty South Carolinians, headed by G. W. 
Jones, came in and stopped temporarily in Fort Scott. 
Under pretense of looking for homes, these men visited 
most of the settlers in the county, ascertained where 
they were from and their politics, what property they 
had, and their means of defense, and made a complete 
list of all the Free-State men. Then, later in the 
season, about July, the Free-State men were again 
visited, and were told they must leave the Territory. 
A system of espionage, intimidation and arrest was 
commenced. Their stock was driven ofi"; their cabins 
fired into in the dead of night, and they were often 
taken under pretended arrest to Fort Scott, where they 
would be advised that it was a much healthier country 
further north for their class. The object was to so 
harass and intimidate them that they would leave 
their claims and such property as could not be easily 
moved, and get out of the Territory, which the Pro- 
slavery people had decided was their own by right, not 
of discovery, but "non-intervention," and "Squatter 



1856] TROUBLE COMMENCES. 57 

Sovereignty." The matter was actually presented to 
the masses of the South in the light that, as the re- 
strictive compromise law had been wiped out, this was 
slave territory; Free-State men were interlopers, and 
had no more rights here than they had in South Caro- 
lina. A Free-State man would not be allowed to live 
in South Carolina ; why should he be here? 

Anyway, their plans worked well. The Free-State 
men were not strong enough then for resistance or 
defense, and most of them left. This was in execution 
of the concerted plans of Major Buford and his lieu- 
tenant, G. W. Jones, who had arrived on the 7th of 
April, at Westport, Missouri, with a large body of 
armed men, some three hundred in number, from Ala- 
bama, Georgia and South Carolina. Buford was a kind 
of brigadier general in the army of invasion, and had 
charge of the border, with the instructions, among 
others, to search all steamboats coming up the Missouri 
river, for Free-State passengers, and all emigrant wag- 
ons coming from the East and North. 

TEXAS RANGERS — EXPEDITION TO MIDDLE CREEK. 

Late in the summer of this year a squad of fellows 
came into Bourbon County from the south, who called 
themselves "Texas Rangers." They were all well 
armed and mounted, and wore spurs as big as a tin 
plate. Their saddles were of the regulation Texas 
pattern, with immense saddle blankets, with the "Lone 
Star" worked in the corner. 

Altogether, they were a very "fierce and warlike 



58 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 

people," and wanted to go right into the business im- 
mediately. So, after laying around town two or three 
days whetting up their bowie knives and running 
bullets they got some of G. W. Jones' South Caro- 
linians, added a few of the fellows who lived in Fort 
Scott, and away they went, headed for Osawatomie, to 
rout out John Brown. The company was under com- 
mand of Wm. Barnes, G. W. Jones and Jesse Davis. 
They got up as far as Middle Creek in Linn County 
where, about August 25th, they were met by Captains 
Shore and Anderson with a company of Free State men 
of about the same number. After a lively skirmish, in 
which three or four volleys were exchanged, they let 
go and skedaddled back to Fort Scott, pushing on their 
bridle-reins and with saddle-blankets flying. They 
had such big stories to tell about being closely pur- 
sued by 2,000 yankees, who would soon be on them to 
burn and murder, that everybody in town, men, 
women and children, dogs and niggers, took to the 
woods and laid out all night. It is said the Texas 
Rangers never stopped till they got back to Red River. 
Geo. W. Jones buried himself in the wilds of Buck 
Run. 

One of the recruits from Fort Scott on this expedi- 
tion was a man named Kline, who had just started a 
newspaper which he called the "Southern Kansan." 
He had issued only two numbers of it when he felt a 
call to help "advance the banner of the holy crusade." 
He laid down the "shooting stick" to take up the 
shooting iron. But it was an unlucky exchange, for, 
at the first fire of "leads," the "devil" fired him into 



1856] BOURBON COUNTY LEGISLATORS. 59 

the "hell-box," and he remained in "pi" forever. 
This was the only report in the "remark" column of 
their muster-roll. 

THE TOPEKA LEGISLATURE. 

The Legislature elected under the Topeka Constitu- 
tion met first on the 4th of March, and adjourned to 
meet at Topeka on the 4th of July, 1856. At that date 
they assembled and attempted to open a session, but 
they were met by Col. Sumner of the regular army, 
who ordered them to disperse. 

SHANNON RESIGNS — GEARY APPOINTED. 

Governor Wilson Shannon, who had now been in 
office several months, became distasteful to the Admin- 
istration and the Pro-slavery party, and retired from 
office on the 21st of August, 1856. 

Secretary Woodson, an implement of the Pro-slavery 
people, became acting Governor until John W. Geary 
of Pennsylvania, was appointed, and assumed the office 
in September following. 

TERRITORIAL LEGISLATORS FOR BOURBON COUNTY. 

On October 6th, 1856, an election was held for mem- 
bers of the second Territorial Legislature, which was 
to meet the following January. In this county there 
were to be two members elected. There were three 
candidates in the field, who received votes as follows : 
B. Brantly, 176 votes; W. W. Spratt, 127 votes; R. G. 



60 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1856 

Roberts, 60 votes. Brantley and Spratt were declared 
elected. 

These men were Pro-slavery. The Free State men 
had nearly all been driven out, as has been stated, and 
what few were left had neither disposition or opportu- 
nity to vote. The Pro-slavery people also voted at this 
election for J. W. Whitfield for Delegate to Congress, 
and voted for calling a Constitutional Convention. 

The closing hour of 1856 was the darkest hour for 
freedom in Kansas. Its closing day marked the first 
year of the preliminary struggle of the civil war. The 
lines were being drawn and public sentiment solidified 
throughout the Nation by the co-efiicients of intoler- 
ance, prejudice and hate. 




1857] NEW TOWNS. 61 



CHAPTER IX. 

BOURBON COUNTY OFFICIALS. 

"srPHE county officers at the beginning of 1857 re- 
^ mained about as they had been in 1856. A. Horn- 
beck was County Treasurer. The same Board of 
County Commissioners, and B. F. Hill was still 
Sheriff. The full representation in the Legislature 
was : Blake Little in the Council, W. W. Spratt"" 
and B. Brantley in the House. Blake Little had been 
elected to succeed William Barbee, who died sometime 
before. Mr. Little was quite an old man, and always 
regarded as a good citizen. He was Pro-slavery in 
politics. His son John H. and daughter Mary were 
living at Fort Scott with him. He left here in 1859 
and went to Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 

NEW TOWNS. 

The second session of the Territorial Legislature was 
convened at Lecompton on the 12th of January. Among 
the laws passed was an act incorporating the town of 
Sprattsville in Bourbon County, an act establishing 
a State road from Barnesville to Cofachique. Spratts- 
ville was near where Dayton now is. It never advanced 
in "growth and population" further than the survey 



62 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

stakes for corner lots. It perished. It was located by 
W. W. Spratt, who was that year in the Legislature. 

The dense population in this county at that time 
seemed to require the "building up" of more towns. 
Already foundations for future cities were beiug laid, 
which in the near future were to become "busy marts 
of trade," "manufacturing and railroad centers;" have 
the machine shops and vote bonds, and have a mac- 
adam tax, and a cracker factory. The probable location 
of the depot was another question of vast moment. It 
must not be so located that it would draw business to 
one point of the town at the expense of another. That 
must be guarded against. Everyone with a piece of land 
suitable for an "addition" said he would guard against 
it if it took half the land he had. 

All these things were within the vision of the found- 
ers, although the nearest railroad was yet two hundred 
miles away. 

MAPLETON LOCATED. 

Mapleton was first located in May, 1857. The Town 
Company were J. C. Burnett, E. P. Higby, Mr. Morton, 
B. B. Newton, S. W. Cheever and D. Scott. This 
Company soon afterwards abandoned the town project 
and was dissolved. 

Afterwards a new Company was organized by Wm. 
Baker, Dr. S. O. Himoe, A. Wilson, John Hawk, 
James Huffnagle and M. E. Hudson. This Company 
first called the town Eldora, but after a time the name 
was changed back to Mapleton. Dr. S. O. Himoe was 



1857] MEANS OF COMMUNICA TION. 63 

appointed the first Postmaster on October 15th, 1857. 
E. P. High}- was appointed early in 1858 and continued 
the Postmaster for more than thirty years. E. Green- 
field established the first store in 1858. 

Mapleton has always been a prominent place in this 
county. It is located in the beautiful valley of the 
Osage, surrounded by an agricultural country unsur- 
passed, and a thrifty, intelligent people. 

RAYVILLE. 

Rayville, of which considerable will be said here- 
after, was located by the two Ray brothers. It was on the 
Osage, about halfway between the points now known as 
Ft. Lincoln and Mapleton. Rayville never became a 
great manufacturing center, either; but they manu- 
factured some Bourbon County history there. It had at 
one time a store and a postoffice. But it finally per- 
ished, also, and was laid "under the sod and the dew" 
by the side of Sprattsville. It was too near Mapleton. 

MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. 

The means the people of Bourbon County then had 
for mail facilities and communication with the outside 
world were decidedly limited. They had a stage line 
established between Fort Scott and Jefferson City, Mo., 
and the stage, an old bob-tailed "jerky," such as is now 
to be seen only in "Wild West shows," made the trip 
once a week; that is, when the creeks were not up and 
there was no other preventing providence. This line 
brought in the Eastern mail, and its arrival and depart- 



64 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

lire were important events. Col. Arnett was the local 
agent, and he conducted the business with characteristic 
flourish. Three times a week they had a horseback 
mail from Westpoint, Montevallo and Sarcoxie, Mo., 
Baxter Springs, Osage Mission and Cofachique. These 
radiating lines indicated the importance already at- 
tached to Fort Scott as a distributing point. All freight 
came on ox- wagons from Kansas City, Mo., down the 
old military road. 

There were then but three saw mills in the county: 
one on the Little Osage, near the future site of Fort 
Lincoln; one on the same stream above Sprattsville, 
and one on the Marmaton six miles west of Fort Scott. 
There was an abundant growth of black walnut, syca- 
more, Cottonwood, oak, coflfee bean, linn, etc., along 
the Little Osage, Mill Creek, Marmaton and Drywood. 





Ciooi) Hass FisHiNi; ON Mii,L Crerk. 



1857] MORE POLITICS. 65 



K 



CHAPTER X. 

MORE POLITICS. 

■)^I^^HE Territorial Legislature in February, 1857, 
,M§ passed an act dividing the Territory into three 
judicial districts. The first step in the Lecompton 
Constitution movement was taken February 19th 
by the Legislature passing an act providing for the 
election of delegates to a convention to frame a 
State Constitution. The act provided for a census to 
be taken, on the basis of which the Governor was to 
apportion among the precincts the sixty delegates to 
the Convention. The delegates were to be elected on 
the second Monday in June, which was the 15th, and 
were to meet at Lecompton on the first Monday in 
September. Governor Geary vetoed the bill, but the 
Legislature passed it over the veto, by a nearly unani- 
mous vote. 

On the 4th of March, 1857, James Buchanan became 
President. 

In his Inaugural Address he said : 

"Congress is neither to legislate slavery into any 
Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and 
conduct their own domestic institutions in their own 



66 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

way. As a natural consequence, Congress has also 
prescribed, that when the Territory of Kansas shall be 
admitted as a State, it shall be received into the Union 
with or without slavery, as the Constitution may 
prescribe at the time of admission. A difference of 
opinion has arisen in regard to the time when the people 
of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves. 
This is happily a matter of but little importance, and 
besides it is a judicial question, which legitimately 
belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, 
before whom it is now pending and will, it is understood, 
be speedily and finally settled." 

Two days afterward the Supreme Court handed down 
the decision in the Dred Scott case. The gist of that 
decision is this : The Missouri Compromise, so far as 
it excluded slavery from the Louisiana Purchase, north 
of 36.30° was unconstitutional ; that Congress had no 
power to prohibit slavery from any portion of the 
Federal territory, nor to authorize the inhabitants 
thereof to do so; that negroes are not citizens, and have 
no rights as such. Or, in other words, that Kansas was 
de jure Slave Territory, as it was de facto. 

"Jeems" evidently knew on the 4th of March what 
that decision was to be as well as he did on the 6th. 

SLAVES IN BOURBON COUNTY. 

At this time there were in Fort Scott and Bourbon 
County about thirty negro slaves, owned by various 
families from the slave States. They were legally held 
as such under the Dred Scott decision. Kansas was 
slave Territory. 

Slaves were bought and sold in this county as late as 



1857] GEARY RESIGNS— WALKER APPOINTED. 67 

August, 1857. The records of the county show that 
Wiley Patterson purchased a negro woman slave of 
James M. Rucker for $500.00 at that date. 

GOV. GEARY RESIGNS — GOV. WALKER APPOINTED. 

Early in March, 1857, Governor Geary sent his res- 
ignation in a letter to St. Louis, the nearest telegraph 
station, to be telegraphed from there to Washington. 
He followed it himself soon after, and left the Terri- 
tory somewhat hastily. 

"He tuck his hat and lef ' very sudden 
Like he gwine to run away," 

Geary was a good man. He took oflfice a Pro-slavery 
man, but he misunderstood what the Administration 
and the leading Pro-slavery men in Kansas wanted. 
He based his policy on the principles of justice and the 
protection of all persons in their rights. That was not 
what they wanted. They were also mistaken in their 
man, and by denying him of all means of self- 
protection in the matter of troops, etc., and by personal 
assault and attempts at assassination, they finally drove 
him from the Territory. 

The Administration then concluded to put in a 
Southern man for Governor, and Robert J. Walker was 
appointed on the 26th of March. Walker, it is true, 
was born in Pennsylvania, but he had spent the years 
of his manhood in Mississippi. F. P. Stanton was 
appointed Secretary and came first, in April, and took 
charge as Acting Governor, 



68 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

MORE IMMIGRANTS. 

Bourbon County had now began to attract more 
attention and become better known to the people of 
the East and North. The few vsettlers who had found 
their way down here "writ back," While their letters 
did not bear any very encouraging word about the state 
of political affairs or the peaceful condition of the 
people, they did tell of a beautiful country, genial skies, 
a spring that opened in March instead of May, and an 
opportunity for getting land enough so that "John" 
and "Mary" could both have a farm when they "come 
of age. ' ' 

Fort Scott had also become one of the noted points 
in the new Territory, and many young men were 
attracted here to make this the starting point for their 
future. A few who came were unfitted for the life of 
pioneers. They generally came from the cities, and 
as much on what they called a tour of adventure as 
anything. But they found that even at the best hotel 
the bed consisted of a straw tick and a buffalo robe, the 
bath room was the Marmaton, and the means of washing 
the face and hands were at the bottom of the back 
stairs in a tin basin with hard water and soft soap. 
They might have withstood all these luxuries, but 
when they came to the dinner table that jarred 'em 
loose. The "menu" consisted of cornbread, bacon, 
fried potatoes and corn coffee with "long sweetnin'. 
After wrestling with those delicacies for a short time 
they would generally conclude they had seen enough 
of the "border troubles" and skip back home fully 



1857] MORE IMMIGRANTS. 69 

determined to "go with their States" and let Kansas go 
Free Trade and Woman's Rights if it wanted to, or go 
to any other place, they were going home where they 
could get some of "mother's cooking." 

During the fall of 1856 and the winter and spring of 
1857, there were also coming in from the slave States — 
aside from the followers of Buford — a large contingent 
of men, who were good citizens where they came from, 
and remained here to the end, good citizens and good 
men. The country knew none better. 

Biographies and biographical sketches of the old 
settlers cannot be given in this volume. Their biog- 
raphies would furnish material for a much larger book 
than this. It may some day be prepared. An attempt 
will be made in this book to give a slight sketch or 
mention only of the more prominent men who took 
hold of the throttle valve and helped turn on steam. 

Among those who came in this spring were the 
following : 

Dr. John H. Couch, with his family, arrived May 30, 
1857. Dr. Couch was born in Lexington, Kentucky, 
April 8, 1827. H^ obtained a fine collegiate and med- 
cal education in that State, and went from there to 
Monroe, Wisconsin, where he married Miss Lillis 
Andrick. He was a strong Democrat and never hesi- 
tated to vigorously denounce what he thought wrong in 
his party, or any other. His heart was big. Many and 
many are the persons who have occasion to remember 
his kind professional services, given without hope of 
fee or reward. 

John G. Stuart came July i. He was born in Halifax, 



iO HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [185t 

N. S., February lo, 1834. He established the first 
wagon shop in Fort Scott. 

T. W. Tallman and family arrived on the 22d of 
April, 1857. Mr. Tallman was taken at once for his 
true worth as a man. He has held many positions of 
trust and honor, with trust and honor. He went out in 
the world at sixteen to shift for himself, and after these 
long and busy years he feels that life has not been a 
failure. 

Dr. A. G. Osbun came this year (1857). Governor 
Wilson Shannon married for his second wife Miss 
Sarah Osbun, sister of Dr. Osbun. Dr. Osbun took no 
active part in political affairs, but attended quietly to 
the duties of his profession. In the latter years of his 
life he was in partnership with Dr. Couch in the drug 
business. 

Mrs. Osbun and the family of girls and boys came to 
the county the following year, after the doctor had 
located here. 

The following named persons also came in to Fort 
Scott in 1857, most of whom came early in the year: 

W. I. Linn, J. C. Sims, Dr. Bills and family, C. P. 
Bullock, S. B. Gordon, Joe Price, Governor E. Ransom, 
Receiver of the Land Office, his wife, son-in-law Geo. 
J. Clark and family; the notorious George W. Clark, 
Register of the Land OflEice, Tom Blackburn, Charley 
Bull, Charley Dimon, Orlando Darling, Joe Ray, W. B. 
Bentley, J. S. Calkins, J. E. Jones, A. R. Allison, J. N. 
Roach and family of girls, John Harris and family, H. 
R. Kelsoe and family. 

The town at that time consisted entirely of the houses 



1857] FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY. H 

around the Plaza, which had been built by the Govern- 
ment. No new buildings had yet been erected. Imagine 
the city, buildings, trees, etc., all cleared away and the 
wild, unbroken prairie in their stead coming clear up 
to the Plaza on all sides, and there you have Fort Scott 
as it appeared at that day. 

The business houses were not yet very numerous. 
Colonel H. T. Wilson had the old post-sutler store, 
southwest of the Plaza, Blake Little & Son occupied 
the old quartermaster building, northwest corner of the 
Plaza, and Hill & Son were in the old guard house. 
There was one blacksmith shop and two saloons. 

FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY. 

About the ist of June, 1857, a party arrived at Fort 
Scott, which had been made up at Lawrence, Kansas, 
consisting of Norman Eddy of Indiana, Geo. A. Craw- 
ford of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, D. H. Weir of In- 
diana, and E. W. Holbrook of Michigan. Their purpose 
in coming to Fort Scott was, principally, to organize a 
town company. The town had been incorporated by 
act of the Legislature of 1855, as has been stated. A 
"Town Company" had already done some wind work 
and formed a "curbstone" organization, consisting of 
C. B. Wingfield, G. W.Jones, S. A. Williams and others. 
The Wingfield Company, as it was called, had no title 
to any land described in the act of the Legislature in- 
corporating the "Town of Fort Scott," nor did anybody 
else. Claims had been filed on the different parts of 
sections by different parties, and the Wingfield company 



72 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

designed to acquire title to the townsite under the 
pre-emption laws. 

On the 8th day of June, 1857, according to the original 
record, the Fort Scott Town Company "made condi- 
tional purchase, and took possession of the 'claims' 
known as the site of Fort Scott," and organized the 
company with the following named members : D. H. 
Weir, D. W. Holbrook, E. S. Lowman, W. R. Judson, 
G. W. Jones, H. T. Wilson, Norman Eddy, George A. 
Crawford and T. R. Blackburn. 

The Wingfield organization was kept alive, however, 
with the view of holding good the pre-emption rights 
of the individual members, until, on the 5th day of 
January, 1858, at a meeting of the Fort Scott Town 
Company the following action was taken : 

"Ordered, That the idea of attempting to pre-empt 
the property of the company under the two organiza- 
tions of the Wingfield Company and the Fort Scott 
Town Company be formally abandoned. And that the 
members and interests of the Wingfield Company be in 
form, as they are in fact, received into and merged in 
the Fort Scott Town Company." 

An outline of the early life of Mr. Crawford is given 
at this point. From the day of his arrival in Fort Scott 
his life is interwoven with the history of the town and 
Bourbon County. 

George A. Crawford was born in Pine Creek Township 
Clinton County, Pennsylvania, on July 27, 1827. -^^^ 
ancestors were well known and active in the Revolution. 
He spent his boyhood in Clinton County, and received 
his higher education at Clinton Academy. After he 



1857 J FOR r SCO TT TO WN COM PA NY. 73 

had finished his education he went to Salem, Kentucky, 
where he taught school, and in 1847 he taught in the 
high schools of Canton, Mississippi. In 1848 he 
returned to Pennsylvania and studied law. 

Mr. Crawford was active and quite prominent in the 
State politics of Pennsylvania, taking James Buchanan 
as his political guide, and later, his personal friend 
Stephen A. Douglas. And finally, in the latter days 
of the life of Douglas, joining with him in the hearty 
support of the Administration of President Lincoln. 

As we have seen, in the spring of 1857, he came to 
Fort Scott, where he at once identified himself with the 
large Free-State immigration just then beginning to 
come in from the North. He was soon recognized and 
accepted as the head of the combined political sentiment 
of men from all sections of the country — North and 
South — who may be denominated, in the political 
shading of that time, as the conservative "Anti Pro- 
slavery party. He had, however, no better personal 
friends than he found among such men as Col. Wilson, 
A. Hornbeck, S. A. Williams, Blake Little, John H. 
Little, Col. Arnett, W. L Linn and others then here, 
whose political prejudices were at that time in harmony 
with the great leaders of the South. 

Mr. Crawford had a more extended acquaintance and 
close personal friendship with prominent men of the 
Nation than any man in the West. He was familiar 
with all sections and all men. Polished and peculiarly 
social in his manner, he was as much at home in the 
political and diplomatic circles of Washington as he 
was in the squatter's cabin. Had his inclinations been 



74 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

for a political career he. could have easily attained great 
prominence. But the bent of his disposition was to be 
at the head of large commercial and manufacturing 
enterprises. For this, he chose this State and 
particularly Fort Scott as the basis of his operations. 
He succeeded well for several years, considering the 
disjointed period of civil war, and had laid the founda- 
tion of his future hopes. But circumstances, which so 
often attack the affairs of men, combined with the 
elements for his overthrow. He saw his mills and 
factories swept away by fire in an hour's time, leaving 
him struggling and helpless in the quick-sand of 
unrelentive fate. The divinity which shapes the affairs 
of men could come to him no more. It had passed by 
his door forever. 

The lives of all men "are of few days and full of 
trouble." They pass like the shadow of a summer 
cloud. One falls ; the ranks close up and move on, and 
only memory glances back. So with him. 

His last resting place is in the Grand Canyons of the 
Colorado. His monument is the memory of those not 
yet fallen. 

UNITED STATES OFFICERS. 

The United States Land Office for this District was 
located at Fort Scott in the Spring of 1857. Epaphro- 
ditus Ransom was appointed Receiver, and G. W. 
Clark, under the name of Doak, was appointed 
Register. 

On the loth of July, Hon. Joseph Williams took the 
oath of office before Secretary Stanton, as Associate 



1857] MORE TENDERFEET. 75 

Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court. He arrived 
at Fort Scott soon after, bringing with him his wife 
and four sons, Mason, Kennedy, Joseph and William, 
and immediately entered upon the duties of his office. 
He had lived many years in Muscatine and Burlington, 
Iowa, where he had been on the bench "twenty-one 
years a judge in Iowa" as he invariably instructed the 
jury in his charge. He was a weak man, easily 
influenced, and without personal dignity. 

MORE TENDERFEET. 

About the first of August, 1857, several more people 
arrived who were afterwards active and prominent 
citizens. 

B. P. McDonald came to Fort Scott from Lock 
Haven, Pennsylvania. He was then a boy of 17. He 
took up a timber claim soon after his arrival here, and 
after the sawmill started he employed men in cutting 
and hauling logs to the mill where he worked as a 
hand himself, and from the proceeds of his lumber he 
made enough to start him in business with his brother, 
Alexander McDonald. In 1861 the firm of A. Mc- 
Donald & Brother turned their attention to freighting 
in addition to their other mercantile business and 
afterwards added a banking department. In 1867 he 
purchased the entire business and continued it in his 
own name until 1869. He then closed out the 
business except the banking department, which he, 
with C. F. Drake and others afterward organized into 
the First National Bank, He was always foremost 



■76 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

in aiding all railroad enterprises looking towards Fort 
Scott, and in 1874 he took hold individually of a 
railway project for a road in a southeastern direction 
from Fort Scott, and after completing a section of 
several miles he finally transfered it to the Kansas City, 
Fcrt Scott and Gulf Railroad Company, and his 
conception and original labors resulted in the con- 
struction of the great trunk line to Memphis, Tennes- 
see. 

Charles Bull had arrived sometime before. He was 
a youngish looking man then, and has maintained the 
same personal appearance for the past thirty years. He 
is now with the Zuna Indians. He was the most even 
tempered man in the Territory, always excepting Joe 
Ray. 

Joseph Ray came from Michigan. He was another 
of the young men who came here to seek his fortune, 
only he didn't want any fortune except to be able to 
give to anybody and everybody in need. That was Joe. 
He was the life of any party or company, and had a 
smile and a joke for every one on every occasion. 
There is no man in the long list of the early settlers 
who have passed away whose memory is kept greener 
than is his. 

William Gallaher arrived on the ist of August from 
Illinois, originally from Pennsylvania. He was also 
quite a young man. He was, however, more lucky 
than some of the other boys, for he got a splendid 
situation soon after his arrival. He was appointed 
postmaster — the third one for Fort Scott — which posi- 



1857] THE FREE STATE HOTEL. 77 

tion paid him over twenty-four hundred — cents a year. 
But he went into the army and lost it all. 

Charles Dimon came from New York. Charley was 
a good fellow, but he had one bad habit, that was corns 
on his feet. 

Ed. A. Smith, Burns Gordon, Albert H. Campbell 
and A. R. Allison were also boys of the class of '57. 
They all graduated with honor in that school the like 
of which will never again be opened. School is out, 
and the teacher is dead. 

THE FREE STATE HOTEL. 

The boys who came in this year and the men who 
had no families with them generally boarded at the 
Fort Scott Hotel, or the "Free State Hotel," as it was 
better known. It was under the management of 
Charley Dimon, with Ben McDonald and Charley Bull, 
and most any of the other boys, as clerks. Will Gallaher 
kept his postoffice there. This hotel was the building 
on the West corner of the Plaza, built by the Govern- 
ment for officers quarters, and now owned and occupied 
by Hon. William Margrave. It was first opened as a 
hotel by Col. Arnett soon after the post was abandoned 
in 1854, and was then the first and only hotel in the 
county. In the Spring of 1857, it was run by the 
Casey Bros. Later Charley Dimon took charge of it, 
and continued in it until January, 1859. 

This house is a historical landmark. In 1857 it 
acquired the name of "The Free State Hotel," which 
it retained for many years. If its walls could talk it 
could beat this history all to pieces. 



78 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [185( 



CHAPTER XL 

LECOMPTON CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

^ITT was now the beginning of autumn. The spring 

c^ season had opened favorably for the farmers, and 

If wherever they had been permitted to stay at home 

and work, the prospect was good for abundant 

i^l crops. Everything seemed to be reasonably quiet in 

' this part of the Territory, although it was a forced 
quiet, and there was much feeling of unrest and appre- 
hension among the people. 

The political talk was about the approaching Pro- 
slavery convention to frame a State Constitution, which 
was to be held at Lecompton. 

As has been noted, the Legislature had passed an act 
providing for the election of delegates to this conven- 
tion, on the 15th of June, 1857. The Free State men 
had, with something like concert of action all over the 
Territory, let the election of these delegates go by de- 
fault. They felt that there was no chance for an ex- 
pression of Free State opinions, and no guarantee that 
it would be anything but a repetition of the villainous 
frauds and outrages which had heretofore taken place 
under the name of "election." 

The Free State men, however, began to realize that 



1857] LECOMPTON CONVENTION. 79 

immigration had in reality now placed their party in 
the majority. Their confidence and courage were 
strengthened, and hope renewed. But the delegates 
were already elected. 

If the Free State men had taken prompt and vigorous 
measures to contest the election of June 15, attended to 
the registration and seen to it that the lists were cor- 
rected, and then mustered their forces at the polls with 
a determined front, it is possible that they might have 
elected a majority of the delegates, obtained control of 
the Lecompton Convention, presented a Free State Con- 
stitution to the people, who would have sustained it, and 
the State have quietly passed into the Union, and the 
pages of Kansas history been altogether changed. 

The Convention met at Lecompton on the 7th of 
September, 1857. Blake Little and H. T. Wilson were 
the delegates chosen from this District. Little was 
chosen President pro tern, of the Convention. 

After several adiournments the Convention finally 
completed their work on the 3rd of November, guarded 
by 200 U. S. troops. It was provided that the election 
on the adoption of this Constitution should be held on 
the 2ist of December ; that the question should be 
divided and that the ticket should read : "For the Con- 
stitution and Slavery," and "For the Constitution 
without Slavery." 

The time for the regular meeting of the Territorial 
Legislature was January 4, 1858, but Acting Governor 
Stanton called an extra session which met on the 7th 
day of December, 1857, ^^^ passed an act providing for 
a vote on the entire constitution — a straight proposition 



80 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

for or against — to be held January 4, 1858, and provid- 
ing more thoroughly against fraud. 

The elections were quite numerous this fall and 
winter, and somewhat confusing unless attended to in 
their regular order. 

THE ELECTION OF OCTOBER 5, 1 857. 

The election for members of the Territorial Legisla- 
ture and for Delegate to Congress was held on the 5th 
of October. 

E. Ransom, of Fort Scott, ran against Mark Parrott, 
the Free State candidate for delegate. 

At this election there were again some indications of 
fraud, especially at the Oxford and Kickapoo precincts, 
and in McGee county. McGee county, for instance, 
"cast" 1202 Pro-slavery votes against 24 votes for the 
Free State ticket. Fraud was patent to every body. 
There were not a hundred legal voters in the county, 
all told. The original returns from McGee county were 
seen by one or more of our Fort Scott men before they 
were doctored and sent on to Lecompton. The lists 
contained a total of exactly eighty-three names. 

At this election Bourbon County voted as follows: 
Dry wood precinct, Ransom 9, Parrott 3; Russell pre- 
cinct, Ransom 12, Parrott 2; Fort Scott precinct. Ran- 
som 99, Parrott 24; Sprattsville precinct, Ransom ■^'X)i 
Parrott 47; Osage precinct. Ransom 22, Parrott 20. 
Total, Ransom 175, Parrott 96. 

The Governor issued a proclamation on the 22d of 
October, rejecting the returns of the election precincts 



1857] MORE TROUBLE. 81 

where the most glaring frauds had occurred. This re- 
duced the total vote for Ransom to 3,799, as against 
7,888 for Parrott, and the certificate of election was 
issued to Parrott, and he took his seat in Congress the 
next December. 

George A. Crawford was the Democratic candidate 
for Territorial Council from this District, which con- 
sisted of Bourbon and seventeen other counties, McGee 
among them. Mr. Crawford went to Lecompton at 
once, and in a conference with Governor Walker and 
Secretary Stanton he advised the throwing out of the 
fraudulent votes, although such action defeated his own 
election. 

MORE TROUBLE. 

The wave of Free State immigration which had 
rolled in over the northern part of the Territory now 
began to reach down into Southern Kansas, and to be 
felt in Bourbon County to a greater extent than ever 
before. And the troubles which had prevailed in the 
North for so long a time were to be also transferred to 
the Southeastern border. 

The Free State men who had been driven out in the 
summer and fall of 1856, now began to return — many 
of them coming back armed — and as they found that 
their strength had been materially increased by the con- 
siderable number of new settlers coming into the 
county they had confidence that by organization they 
could now maintain themselves and recover their claims 
and much of their other property. Among their leaders 



82 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON CO UNTY. [1 857 

were J. C. Burnett, Samuel Stevenson, Captain Bain and 
Josiah Stewart. 

Notice was served on those who had wrongfully taken 
possession of cabins and claims that they must leave. 
Many did so at once, but others relying on aid and 
assistance from the "Blue Lodges" of organized Pro- 
slavery men which existed in Fort Scott and along the 
border, refused to vacate. 

As an illustration of those difficulties, the case of 
Stone and Southwood is given. William Stone had 
been driven off of his claim on the Osage, and his claim 
and cabin were taken possession of by a man named 
Southwood, a Southern preacher. When Stone re- 
turned to assert his rights Southwood refused to vacate. 
The Free State men, after considering the case, built 
Stone another cabin, near Southwood' s, and moved his 
family into it. The women of the two families, of 
course, got into a small border war over the well of 
water. This helped to aggravate matters and the Free 
State men finally ordered Southwood to leave by a 
certain time. Just before the time fixed to leave, 
Southwood gathered a large number of his friends from 
Fort Scott and along the border with the purpose of 
driving Stone off. But the Free State men were right 
on hand, and gathered at Stone's to resist the expected 
attack. It was a first-rate opening for a good fight, but 
the Pro-slavery party, after a feint of an attack that 
night, drew off. They made much big talk, but they 
found the Free State party too strong and determined, 
and Southwood left. 

The opposing forces, or factions, came near a col- 



1857] SQUATTER'S COURT. 83 

lision several times after that. Things looked ugly. 
But for some reason the Pro-slavery men declined to 
open the ball, and the Free State policy was to await an 
attack. 

Finally, a resort was had to the forms of "law." 
A term of the U. S. District Court was commenced on 
the 19th of October, 1857. ^^ "^^^ \i^\^ in the south 
room of the land office building, Judge Joseph Williams 
presiding, S. A. Williams, Clerk, and J. H. Little, Dep- 
uty U. S. Marshal. This court was in full sympathy 
and control of the Pro-slavery party. Claimants 
throughout the District took their cases before this 
court, and Judge Williams in most of the "claim cases" 
decided against the Free State man. 

Free State men were often arrested on some trumped- 
up charge and were held for excessive bail or refused 
bail altogether. These arbitrary proceedings were very 
aggravating to them and they instituted a "court" of 
their own. 

squatter's court. 

What they called a "Squatter's Court" was organ- 
ized for the District. A full complement of officers. 
Judge, Clerk, Sheriff, etc., was appointed. The first 
"court" was held at what was called "Bain's Fort," 
a large log house on the Osage river, a little northwest 
of the present town of Fulton. It was built by old 
John Brown and Captain Bain. Dr. Rufus Gilpatrick, 
of Anderson county, was Judge, and Henry Kilbourn, 
Sheriff. Here they tried causes in due form of law, 
and meted out justice according to their best light. 



84 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

The only reasonable ground for "exceptions" to be 
taken to the proceedings was, perhaps, that as there 
was no family Bible handy the witnesses were sworn 
on "Dr. Gunn's Family Physician." But as this was 
a court from which there was no appeal, exceptions, 
though often taken, were rarely noted. 

The existence of this rival court was not to be toler- 
ated by Judge Williams and his friends, and on the 
1 2th day of December, 1857, he ordered Deputy Mar- 
shal Little to organize a posse and dissolve it. Little 
went up there with a few men but the court failed to 
dissolve. On the i6th he again advanced on the works 
with a posse of about fifty men. When near the fort 
he was met by a party with a flag of truce headed 
by D. B. Jackman. They held a parley, and were 
finally informed by Little that if they did not sur- 
render at once he would fire on them. The truce 
party warned Little that if he advanced it would be at 
his peril. They then returned to the fort, and Little 
advanced to the attack and opened fire. Several volleys 
were exchanged. The attack was repulsed. Some of 
Little's men and horses were slightly wounded. He 
then returned to Fort Scott. On the next day he in- 
creased his force to 100 men and returned again to the 
attack, but he found, on arriving at the fort, that the 
garrison had escaped during the night, and the court 
"adjourned." 

One of the posse was named James Rhoades, who 
started back to Marmaton, where he had been em- 
ployed in Ed. Jones' saw-mill. On the road he met a 
Mr. Weaver, a Free State man, and they got into a 



1857] A PROTECTIVE SOCIETY. 85 

quarrel. Weaver was unarmed. Rhoades carried a 
loaded gun and was himself well loaded with that same 
old Missouri whiskey. In the quarrel he attempted to 
shoot Weaver, but Weaver got the gun away from him 
and killed him with it. 

A little before this time a difficulty began between 
two of the Osage settlers. It was a claim fight. In 
1856 a man named Hardwick came in there and took a 
claim. Isaac Denton and his sons, James and John 
Denton, came in about the same time. Hardwick per- 
mitted James Denton to occupy a cabin on his claim 
with the understanding that he was to vacate at a cer- 
tain time. When the time came around Denton refused 
to vacate. Hardwick was threatened, his cabin was 
fired into, and he was forced to give up his claim and 
get out. Soon after this Isaac Denton and a friend and 
neighbor named Hedrick, were killed. Hardwick was 
suspected of the crime and he fled the country. A year 
or two afterwards he was arrested in Missouri for this 
crime and delivered to John Denton to be brought 
to Kansas for trial. On the way Denton shot Hard- 
wick dead. Denton, in his turn, was killed at Barnes- 
ville, by Bill Marchbanks, for the killing of Hardwick. 

A PROTECTIVE SOCIETY. 

Geo. H. B. Hopkins settled on the Osage in Septem- 
ber, 1856. He lived neighbor to Hedrick when the 
latter was called from the bed-side of his sick wife and 
shot down in his own door. The Dentons also lived 
in the same neighborhood. The killing of Hedrick 



86 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

and Denton on account of the threats of the Pro-slavery 
men that no Free State man should be allowed to raise 
a crop or stay on his claim, caused Mr. Hopkins and 
his neighbor, Mr. Denison, to start out and organize a 
" Protective Society." A large meeting was collected. 
Squire Jewell was made chairman. Hopkins, Jewell 
and Denison were chosen a committee to draft by-laws. 
At a second meeting, three days later, James Mont- 
gomery of Linn County was present, but took no part 
until the men present at the meeting showed their 
hands by passing the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That we, the members of this organiza- 
tion, pledge ourselves to protect all good citizens in 
their rights of life and property irrespective of politics." 

Montgomery then arose and in a speech said : "I am 
now with you and will be to the end. Some men must 
be active in defense while others work. We have a 
hydra-headed monster to fight, and I for one will fight 
him and with his own weapons, if necessary." And 
from that time dated the activity of Montgomery as a 
partisan leader of the Free State men. He now pro- 
posed to take the saddle. 

After Isaac Denton and Hedrick were killed, old 
man Travis, also a settler on the Osage, was arrested 
charged with having something to do with their 
murder. He was taken before the Squatter's Court at 
Mapleton and there found not guilty. On his way 
home he stopped at Dr. Wasson's, and that night the 
house was attacked and he was killed. Dr. Wasson 
was also shot in the arm and crippled for life. This 
was done or instigated by Jim Denton. 



1857] THE CONSERVATIVES. 87 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE CONSERVATIVES. 
LL through these border troubles there was 



v32^ naturally and necessarily what may be called a 
conservative resident element in Fort Scott and 
throughout the county, of both the Pro-slavery 
and Free State parties ; men trying to attend to 
business, improve their claims, make homes, and 
carry on their daily avocations. These men were, as 
they well expressed it, between two fires. And the 
alarms, incursions, excursions and the retaliatory acts, 
back and forth between the two parties were carried on 
over the heads of these law-abiding men. It was a 
diflScult position, much harder to maintain in the 
country than in town. These men were not conserva- 
tive in the sense of being non-committal or even 
non-partisan but as being " non-active" in the political 
difficulties which did not concern their private affairs. 

It is of no avail to speculate now whether or not this 
factious, partisan border trouble was necessary or could 
have been prevented. It was simply a matter of fact ; 
it existed, and that is all there is to be said about it. 
The Free State men were, in a large measure, on the 
defensive. They either had to hold their ground or be 



88 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

driven out. Get out or fight. It was a "condition and 
not a theory that confronted them," although it was a 
theory which, in some sense, had brought them to this 
country in the first place; the theory that they had a 
right to go into United States territory, take a claim, 
make a home and speak and vote as they pleased. And 
they proceeded at once on the theory that the condition 
they found was a theory, and that their original theory 
should become the condition. 

U. S. TROOPS AT FORT SCOTT. 

The constant alarms occurring in the latter part of 
this year resulted in the calling of a public meeting at 
Fort Scott on the i3tli day of December. E. Ransom 
was made chairman. Resolutions were reported that a 
vigilance committee of five should be appointed to take 
measures to assist in the better execution of the law, 
either by the organization of a militia company or an 
appeal to the Governor and having United States 
troops stationed here. The committee appointed was 
H. T. Wilson, Blake Little, T. B. Arnett, G. A. 
Crawford and J. W. Head. The committee rightly 
concluded that it would be injudicious to try to organize 
a military company at that time, and decided to ask 
for troops, who were supposed to have no politics. At 
their instance John S. Cummings, the sherifi" of the 
county, reported to Acting Governor Stanton that he 
required the aid of U. S. troops in the execution of the 
law, and sent the concurrent statement of Marshal 
Little to the same effect. In response to this request 



1857] VOTE ON LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 89 

Captain Sturgis, afterwards a Union General, was sent 
here on the 21st of December with Companies E. and 
F. ist U. S. Cavalry, and order was restored and 
maintained for the short time they were here. 

FIRST VOTE ON THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 

Governor Walker, finding that his idea of fairness 
and justice ran counter to that of the propaganda, 
resigned his office on the 17th of December. 

He had been absent from the Territory for some time 
and Secretary Stanton had been Acting Governor, and 
while so acting had called the special session of the 
Territorial Legislature to change the date and manner 
of voting on the lyccompton Constitution, and for that 
act, and others not in the programme, he was removed. 

J. W. Denver was appointed to succeed him as 
Secretary, and took the oath of office on the 21st of 
December, and became Acting Governor. 

On December 21, the first election was held on the 
Lecompton Constitution. At this election the Free 
State men again abstained from voting, or giving it 
any attention. 

The vote in Bourbon County, as returned, was as 
follows : 

For the Constitution, with slavery, 366 

For the Constitution, without slavery, ... 78 

There were only nine votes cast against the constitu- 
tion in the entire Territory. These were voted at 
Leavenworth and the tickets read "To hell with the 
Lecompton Constitution." 



90 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1857 

This election, besides being otherwise a farce, was 
more or less fraudulent in every precinct in the 
Territory, Bourbon County not excepted. 

Bourbon County elected members of the State 
Legislature under the Lecompton Constitution as 
follows : Blake Little for Senator, D. W. Campbell 
and J. C. Sims for the House. 

EflTorts were now being made at different points, 
notably at Leavenworth, to organize a Free State 
Democratic party, as Free State Democrats everywhere 
repudiated the Lecompton Constitution, but no organ- 
ization was effected in 1857, 

Among the arrivals about the close of the year were 
Alex McDonald, brother of B. P. McDonald, and E. S. 
Bowen, who had purchased and shipped a sawmill, 
which was on the road and would arrive in due time. 
The mill machinery began to arrive about the middle 
of the next month, and was to be erected at a site 
chosen for it near the corner of what is now First 
Street and Ransom Street, or maybe a little further 
West towards Scott Avenue. 

Lumber was going to be in demand, for building 
would begin in the Spring, although the year 1857 was 
closing in turmoil, excitement and uncertainty. 



\ 



18581 SECOND LECOMPTON ELECTION. 91 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SECOND ELECTION ON LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 

"sHDHE year 1858 opened politically with the now 
^l almost periodical election on the Lecompton 
Constitution. This one occurred on the 4th of 
January, as was provided for, as will be remem- 
bered, by the Territorial Legislature in the special 
session of December, 1857. 

In Bourbon County the vote was as follows : 

For the Constitution with slavery 55 

For the Constitution without slavery . . . none 
Against the Constitution 268 

The total vote in the Territory, as published, was: 

For the Constitution with slavery 138 

For the Constitution without slavery ... 23 

Against the Constitution 10,226 

There was little or no deliberate or prearranged fraud 
in this election in Bourbon County. The Pro-slavery 
men in their turn abstained to a great extent from voting, 
but the Free State men went at it in great shape this 
time. 

No analysis of the vote can be made. It will be noted 
that Bourbon County cast nearly one-half of the total 



9^ HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

votes in the Territory for the Constitution with slavery, 
as they were finally counted. But the vote proved 
nothing as to the relative strength of parties in this 
county. If an accurate poll of the legal voters in the 
county that day could have been taken for the Consti- 
tution with slavery, or against the entire Constitution, 
it would have resulted in about 250 votes for each side 
of the question. 

FIRST NEWSPAPER ESTABLISHED. 

The Fort Scott Town Company fell heir to the press 
and material of the "Southern Kansan," which was 
started and two numbers issued by Kline, who went to 
war, and got killed in 1856, as you have read. 

This material was afterwards stored in the black- 
smith shop of Arnett's corral, where it remained until 
January, 1858, when it was resurrected under the aus- 
pices of J. E. Jones. It was removed to the south 
room of the second floor of the Land Office building, 
where Joe Williams, jr., and Charlie Bull — scrub typos, 
proceed to sort the pi, and make ready for the publica- 
tion of the Fort Scott Democrat. The first number of 
the Democrat made its appearance on the 27th of Jan- 
uary, 1858, J. E. Jones, editor. 

The publication of the Democrat was continued by 
Mr. Jones until sometime in 1859, when he left town. 

THE FIRST GRAND BALL. 

About the ist of January, 1858, W. T. Campbell, who 
with his family, had been living at Baruesville, whither 



1858] TROUBLE BEGINS AGAIN. 93 

he had moved from Kalamazoo, Michigan, came to town 
and took charge of the Fort Scott or Free State Hotel. 
Soon after, he gave what might be termed the opening 
ball. All the elite of the city were present. One fiddle 
furnished the music. Joe Ray "called," and "alamand 
left" was heard at regular intervals until the "wee sma' 
hour" of seven o'clock next morning. We don't re- 
member very well all the ladies who were there, but we 
do remember Miss Jemima Roach. Jemima was the 
belle of the evening. For the benefit of the rising 
generation we will give something of a description of 
her ball costume, which will answer for a description 
of all, for they were all about alike — cut off the same 
piece in Colonel Wilson's store. Well, Jemima had on 
a good warm linsey woolsey dress, with small check, 
say, half-inch square, cut high neck and low sleeves, 
trimmed with a feathery ruche of cut calico, and a dove 
colored belt, a la cinch Mexicano. We believe the 
dress was not cut bias anywhere, unless it was under 
the arms. Just a good plain every day dress that would 
do to milk in. Then good warm woolen stockings. 
Government red tape garters, and good stout calf-skin 
shoes, laced with buckskin strings. That's all. Sally 
Duncan was the only one known to complain about a 
thing at the ball. She said she "didn't like the durned 
abolition callin'; too much cheatin' yer pardners." 

TROUBLE BEGINS AGAIN. 

The troops remained here until the loth of January. 
1858, when they were ordered away, and then trouble 



94 HIS TOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1 858 

commenced again. Some of the Border Ruffians took 
a squad out to where Mr. Johnson lived and abused 
him, took some of his stock, and threatened to make 
him leave. Johnson got word to Montgomery about it, 
and asked him to come down and see about some fellows 
whose names he gave as the leaders, who were then 
stopping in Fort Scott. About the loth of February 
Montgomery was sighted by some of their scouts, com- 
ing in sure enough, with a party of twenty men. Out 
about the California ford on the Marmaton they were 
met by a delegation to ascertain what he wanted. When 
he told them who he was after, they informed him that 
this particular man had leaked out into Missouri. But 
Monty thought he would come in and see for himself. 
So he did. But they were gone. Then Crawford and 
Judge Williams and some others, invited him and his 
forces to take breakfast at the Free State Hotel ; pre- 
sented him the freedom of the city, so to speak — on a 
tin platter. So the boys, who were in their "working 
clothes," and not overly well dressed, took on a good 
breakfast, and then went quietly home. 

On the 15th, the men Montgomery had been looking 
for returned, Brockett among them. Soon after that a 
difficulty occurred between Brockett and Charley Dimon, 
which might have resulted seriously, had it not been for 
the firmness and courage of Colonel Campbell. 

OBJECT LESSON IN SURGERY. 

On the 28th of February a party under command of 
Dr. Jenuison and "Rev." Stewart, alias "Plum,'' went 



1858] ORIGIN OF ''JAYHAWKERy 95 

to the house of a Pro-slavery man named Van Zumwalt, 
on the Osage, and routed him out. When the door was 
being opened — which was hung on wooden hinges and 
opened outward — the muzzle of a gun was noticed being 
poked out through the crack near the upper hinge. 
Some one shot at it and Van received the ball in his 
arm. He then surrendered. It was found to be a bad 
wound, and Jennison, who was a very good surgeon, 
then went to work and washed and dressed the wound, 
giving the boys a clinical lecture as he went along, 
explaining everything, and giving them instructions 
how to proceed in similar cases which were likely to 
to occur in the future. 

If Van had been killed it is presumed Rev. Stewart 
would have made a ' 'few remarks' ' about the uncertainty 
of this life, and said a few words for the repose of his soul. 

The Jayhawkers always went well fixed in the matter 
of the learned professions. They generally had a doctor 
and a preacher along, and quite often a lawyer. 

ORIGIN OF "JAYHAWKER." 

On this trip the word, Jayhawker, originated. Jen- 
nison had with him a regular all-around thief named 
Pat Devlin. After the boys went into camp north of 
the Osage, the next morning after visiting Van Zumwalt, 
they noticed Pat coming in riding a yellow mule loaded 
down with all sorts of plunder. In front of him were 
hanging from the horn of the saddle, a big turkey, 
three or four chickens and a string of red peppers, 
behind him a 50-pound shoat, a sheep-skin, a pair 
of boots and a bag of potatoes. 



96 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

"Hello, Pat, where have you been," asked Doc. 

"O'ive been over till Eph. Kepley's a-jayhawking. " 

"Jayhawking? What in thunder do you mean? 
What kind of hawking is that?" said Doc. 

"Well, sor, in ould Oireland we have a birud we 
call the jayhawk, that whin it catches another birud it 
takes deloight in bullyragin the loife out ov it, like a 
cat does a mouse, and, be jasus, Oi bethot me Oi was 
in about thot same business mesilf. You call it 'forag- 
ing off the inemy,' but, begobs, O'ill call it jay- 
hawking." 

"All right," laughed Jennison. "We'll call it 'Jay- 
hawking' from this on." And so it was. 

This same Pat Devlin took a claim on the Osage 
some time before the incident related, laid a foundation 
for a cabin on it and prepared for pre-emption. But 
his inclination to jayhawk overcame any desire he may 
have had to become a farmer, and, in consequence, he 
was away so much "on thot business" that he for- 
feited all right to his claim. John Hinton, of the Osage, 
then jumped the claim, built a cabin and moved his 
father and mother and family into it. Among the 
family was the old grand father, a man about 85 years 
of age, who was bed-ridden and helpless from rheuma- 
tism. One day Pat was riding by the cabin, and on 
examination, he found that the family were all away 
from home except the old man. What did he do then 
but turn in and first tearing the roof off the house he 
rolled the logs off one at a time clear down to a level 
with the old grand pap's bed, leaving him there in the 
weather, alone and utterly helpless. 



1858] FIRST MANUFACTORY. 97 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FIRST MANUFACTORY IN FORT SCOTT. 

^BOUT the 2oth of Februar}', 1858, McDonald's 
saw-mill was completed and steamed up for the 
first time. The boys thought this was a proper 
occasion to steam up likewise, and Alex, McDon- 
ald "gave a party" that night. Egg-nog was 
the principal ingredient. Ben. McDonald, John 
Little and Ed. Smith were chief cooks and did the 
mixing. They thought they had plenty of fuel when 
they started in, but Ben said they run out of Polk 
County sour mash, and towards the last he had to chuck 
in some bay rum. Anyway, they laid the boys all out, 
bottom side up. They didn't know whether they were 
border ruffians or prohibitionists. Joe Ray said the next 
day, they had to dust their hats with slick powder and 
put them on with a shoe horn. 

The boys had lots of fun at this saw-mill. Ben was 
head sawyer and Joe "bore off" the slabs, when he 
couldn't get Charlie Osbun, or some one of the other 
boys to do it for him. Joe wasn't lazy, but he was awful 
tired. They sawed cottonwood lumber sometimes. 
Cottonwood was great lumber to warp. Joe said it 
would often curl up and crawl oft in the bushes and hide. 

7 



98 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

MARMATON TOWN COMPANY. 

On the 6th of February, 1858, an act was passed by 
the Legislature incorporating the town of Marmaton. 
W. R. Griffith, W. B. Barber, W. H. Krotzer and 
Horatio Knowles were named as the incorporators. On 
the nth of February another act was passed incorpor- 
ating the Town Company of Marmaton. The 
incorporators were T. R. Roberts, J. E. Jones, Orlando 
Darling and Charles Dimon. This Company spelled 
the name with an "i" instead of an "a" thus: 
"Marmiton." The correct way to spell the name of 
the town and the river is as the Town Company had it. 
The name was given the river by the French fur 
traders who were here before any other white people. 
The word means scullion, or kitchen boy, the one that 
empties the pots and slops. But the people of the 
town and township preferred to spell the name 
"Marnjaton," and they petitioned the County Court to 
have the spelling of the name changed, and it was so 
ordered. 

UNIONTOWN. 

Uniontowu was laid out in 1858, by Aleph Goff, W. 
W. Wright and B. F. Gumm, who were members of 
the Town Company. Uniontown took the place of 
"Turkey Creek" post office, which was a well known 
point in the early days of the Territory, when it was 
in "Russell" Township. It is surrounded by as fine 
an agricultural country as there is in the county, and 
the settlers, old and new, are of the best class of people. 



1858] THE ENGLISH BILL. 99 

THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION. 

The Legislature on the loth of February, 1858, 
passed an act providing for the election of delegates to 
another State Constitutional Convention. The election 
was held on the 9th of March. W. R. Griffith was 
delegate from this county. The Convention met at 
Minneola on the 23rd of March, and after organizing 
adjourned to Leavenworth, where the first session was 
held on the 25th of March. On April 3d the "Leaven- 
worth Constitution" was completed. The prominent 
feature of this Constitution was that it nowhere 
contained the word "white." 

The Leavenworth Constitution did not figure to a 
great extent in the history of Kansas. President 
Buchanan had, on the 2nd of February, 1858, trans- 
mitted the old Lecompton Constitution to the Senate 
and recommended the admission of the State under it. 
This he did in the face of the known and often expressed 
opposition to that Constitution by both the Free State 
Republicans and the Free State Democrats. 

THE ENGLISH BILL. 

Congress, being unable to agree on the question, 
finally appointed a conference committee, and on the 
23d of April, W. H. English, of Indiana, reported for 
the committee what is known as the "English Bill." 
This act provided that the Lecompton Constitution be 
again resubmitted to a vote of the people ; provided 
stringent regulations for securing a fair vote, and 
provided for an immense grant of lands to the State for 



100 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

various purposes, aggregating nearly six million acres, 
as a straight bribe to the people if they would adopt it. 
We will vote on this proposition as quick as we can 
get around to it. 

JAYHAWKING REDUCED TO PLAIN STEALING. 

Everything being somewhat quiet this winter in the 
"political" circles of this section, Montgomery decided 
to retire from the field, and do a little work in the way 
of improvements on his farm in Linn county when 
spring opened. There were others, he thought, who 
could continue the watch on the border and keep the 
upperhand of the Border Ruffians in this part of the 
Territory. The man principally relied on to do that 
was a Methodist preacher called Captain, or "Rev." 
Stewart, the same man mentioned as having had a hand 
in the Van Zumwalt affair. Stewart had about twenty 
men, who mostly lived north of the Osage river, when 
they had any home at all. For awhile everything went 
off all right. But very soon brother Stewart "back- 
slid," and he and his gang began stealing horses right 
and left, and running them off up north. They gave 
themselves up to plundering, robbing and stealing from 
everybody and anybody. They pretended to be Free- 
State men — called themselves so — but any man who 
had a little property was a Pro-slavery man in their 
eyes, and "all horses were Pro-slavery." 

They committed so many villainous outrages that the 
settlers, of all parties, began to leave the country. Many 
came in to Fort Scott for protection. It seemed like 



1858] JAYHAWKING, 101 

the country would be depopulated. The Governor was 
appealed to for troops by Judge Williams and others 
and on the 26th of February Captain George T. Ander- 
son came down with two companies of the ist U. S. 
Cavalry. But he could not do much good ; he could 
not guard each individual, and he could not catch the 
thieves. He told the settlers who applied to him for 
protection that they must come in to Fort Scott. That 
was a difficult matter, too, for those who had property, 
especially stock. They could not well bring that in to 
town. This plundering and stealing was aided and 
participated in to some extent by a few of these very 
U. S. soldiers, who were sent here to protect the people. 
Edward Wiggin, who now lives on his farm about four 
miles north of Fort Scott, came here with Capt. Geo. 
T. Anderson, as a private in Company "I," Anderson's 
company. He says there was a small squad of his 
compan)', giving their names as Bill DeBost, Jim Sim- 
mons, Henry Sadwick and some others, who soon fell 
in with the idea of playing "Jayhawker, " and influ- 
enced by some of the old Border Ruffians, repeatedly 
made stealing raids out into the county, in which they 
represented themselves as "Stewart's men," and Free- 
State men. A. Hyde, who after the war located in Fort 
Scott, and was at one time City Marshal, and who our 
citizens familiarly called Cap. Hyde, was also a member 
of Anderson's company. Through the influence prin- 
cipally of Ed. Wiggin and Cap, Hyde the thieves 
mentioned were driven out of the company for this 
stealing business. 

In the meantime, all this thieving and indiscriminate 



102 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

plundering was casting an odium on the Free State 
party and giving it a bad name among those who were 
not in the saddle. 

Things came to such a pass that Montgomery again 
took the field to straighten them out. As soon as he 
appeared Stewart and most of his gang left this part of 
the Territory for a while and that sort of business 
ceased for some time. 

FIGHT WITH U. S. TROOPS. 

Montgomery remained in the field. The Southeast- 
ern border was infested by Border Rufiians of the worst 
class, many of whom had been driven down by the 
Free State men further north and had lodged along the 
Missouri State line. They were making their last 
stand here. Hamilton was their General-in-chief. It 
was an idea of theirs to use the United States troops to 
accomplish the capture of old Jim Montgomery. They 
had out their spies, and on the 21st of April it was 
ascertained and reported to them that Montgomery was 
in the Marmaton valley. Captain Anderson was at 
once urged by the Border Ruffian crowd to go out and 
bring him in. Anderson, like many of the regular 
army officers, was himself an ultra Pro-slavery man 
and would have liked nothing better than to have 
gotten hold of Montgomery. He did not require much 
urging, and soon started out with a detail of men to 
capture him. About six or eight miles out, in the 
Isaac Mills neighborliood, they sighted old Jim sure 
enough, riding leisurly along, with about twenty men, 




Western House, or Pro-Slavery Hotel. 




-*. 




ii»8i«i tf* 



Narrow Defile on Taint Creek. 1S58. 



1858] FIGHT WITH U. S. 7 R OOPS. 103 

and they took after him full tilt. It had not yet 
become customary to fight United States troops by 
either faction, and Montgomery having no desire to 
commence the practice "skeedaddled." But being 
close pressed he turned up Yellow Paint Creek to a 
good narrow defile for defensive purposes which he knew 
of, quickly dismounted his forces to fight as infantry, 
and coolly awaited the onslaught of Anderson's troops. 
Anderson paid no attention to the order, three times 
given, to halt, but opened fire without dismounting, 
badly wounding one man, John Denton. Montgomery 
replied with a volley, killing one soldier named Alvin 
Satterwait, wounding one or two others and killing a 
soldier's horse, which fell on him pinning him to the 
ground, and also killing Anderson's horse. The 
regulars then retreated to town, and the irregulars went 
on about their business. 

This was the first and only time United States troops 
were fired on during the border troubles. The Free 
State party had always been careful to avoid placing 
themselves in the light of rebels, or as resisting the 
bogus Territorial laws. This affair was not similar to 
that of Thermopolyae or the Alamo, for "Thermopolyae 
had one messenger of destruction; the Alamo had 
none," but it might easily have been, had Anderson's 
force been of similar disproportion. 

Captain Anderson resigned soon after this, and when 
the war broke out he went into the rebel army and 
became a Brigadier General. He had a brigade at 
Pittsburg Landing. Captain Hyde was also in that 
battle as a private in the regular army. On the first 



104 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

day of the battle Hyde was wounded and left in the 
hands of the Confederates, where he was accidentally 
thrown into the presence of General Anderson. They 
knew each other at once, and Anderson caused him to 
be taken care of until the second day, when the tide of 
battle, surging past where he was, left him in the 
hands of his friends. 

The second in command under Montgomery in the 
Paint Creek fight was Aaron D. Stevens, then going 
under the name of Captain Whipple. More will be 
said of him hereinafter. 



1858] SOME OLD SETTLERS. 105 



CHAPTER XV.. 

SOME OLD SETTLERS. 

tMONG the men who settled in this county in the 
Spring of 1858, was James F. Holt, who went out 
to where William Holt was located on Turkey 
Creek. Mr. Holt was born in Tennessee, April 
15, 1819. He was postmaster at Turkey Creek, 
and held other important positions and was a well 
known figure in our county affairs. William Jackman 
came from Pennsylvania and settled at Rockford. Guy 
Hinton, A. Wilson and his brother M. Wilson came out 
from Ohio, and located at Mapleton. Frank M. Smith, 
from Tennessee, settled near Mapleton. Charles Elliott, 
from Ohio, was quite a prominent man; he served as 
County Treasurer one term. D. B. Jackman, Attorney- 
at-Law, first went to Anderson county, but located "all 
along the Osage" in 1858. He was prominent in 
"Squatter Court" afiairs. E. G. Jewell and D. Jewell 
settled on the Osage. E. G. Jewell, a very promi- 
nent man, was one of the vice-presidents at the organ- 
ization of the Republican party at Osawatomie, May 
18, 1859. H. Hickson, from Ohio, settled on Mill 
Creek. W. R. Clyburn, from Indiana, settled on Dry- 
wood. The Custard family, from Pennsylvania, and 



106 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

J. B. Caldwell from the same State, settled on Drywood. 

C. H. Haynes and family as noted by the Fort Scott 
Detnocrat^ arrived in March, 1858. He soon afterwards 
purchased an interest in the saw-mill, and some time 
afterwards he and Mr. Jenkins moved the mill to the 
Marmaton river, northeast of the Plaza. Captain 
Haynes entered the service at the beginning of the war, 
as a lieutenant in the 6th Kansas, and in 1862 raised 
and commanded Co. B, 14th Kansas. He was married 
to Miss Jennie Hoyle, December 20, 1855. 

John J. Stewart, who has already been mentioned as 
having come here in January, 1856, had now grown to 
manhood, and taken a claim on Mill Creek near Cen- 
terville. He married Miss Elizabeth Harbin in Febru- 
ary, 1856. During the war he served first in the 6th 
Kansas, and afterwards raised and commanded Co. C, 
of Colonel Eaves' battalion, and was all through the 
Price raid of October, 1864. He has repeatedly repre- 
sented the Mill Creek District in the Legislature, and 
has served two terms as County Treasurer. He finally 
moved to Fort Scott, and was one of the principal 
founders of the well known State Bank. 

Charles W. Goodlander arrived in Fort Scott on the 
29th of April, 1858. He came in on the first trip of 
the stage on the line between Kansas City and Fort 
Scott, just opened by Squires of Squireville, and which 
was to try to run tri-weekly thereafter. Goodlander 
had learned the carpenter trade, and desired to work 
at that business here; but not finding work just then, 
he took the job of carrying the mail to Cofachique, 
which then existed near where Humboldt is now. On 



18581 IMPROVEMENTS BEGIN. 10*7 

his trip he found the postmaster at Turkey Creek away 
from home, and the lady of the house, Mrs. Holt, was 
washing. She gave him the key and told him to 
change the mail himself. He did so, and found the 
mail consisted of one lone copy of the N. Y. Tribune. 
He got an occasional job at his trade, and would often 
carry the necessary lumber from the sawmill on his 
back. After a while he built a shop of his own. He 
felt then like he was an independent citizen, and 
dreamed of the time in the far distant future when he 
would be worth a fortune of ten thousand dollars. 
That was the objective point which he hoped some day 
to attain. Like a good number of the men who came 
to Bourbon County in an early day who are recognized 
as among the leading citizens in the town and county, 
he was a poor boy, with only industry, integrity, native 
will power and good hard sense as the capital with 
which he commenced life. And like these men also, 
with whom he has often joined hands in local enter- 
prises after the hardships of those disjointed times, he 
soon became a powerful factor in the advancement of 
the interests of the city and county. 

E. L. Marble and Robert Blackett were already here. 
George Dimon, Dick Phillips and A. F. Bicking arrived 
in April, 1858. 

IMPROVEMENTS BEGIN. 

For a good while there was not much business going 
on in Fort Scott, and the young men found it difficult 
to get steady work. They did what they could find to 
do in the way of odd jobs, and when business got too 



m HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

slack and collections slow, they would "accept a posi- 
tion" on the jury of the United States Court. That 
was richness. The pay was $2.50 a day in gold. 

All the boys resorted to the jury when it became 
necessary to make a payment on board and washing, 
especially board. The washing didn't worry them. 
The jury was about the only means of raising ready 
cash. 

The saw mill had been running since the "opening 
night," sawing up oak logs into flooring and dimension 
stuff", and large walnut logs that would now be worth 
$100 each, into siding and fencing. The cottonwood 
lumber was all corralled or lariated out. 

Building operations now commenced on Market street. 
W. I. Linn was the first to begin. He built and opened 
a saloon in the structure afterwards occupied by Linn & 
Stadden as a grocery store. J. S. Calkins put up a 
small building further east, and the town company an- 
other, opposite the head of Scott avenue, and alongside 
the alley running toward the corral. George J. Clarke 
and Will Gallaher also erected a small log building on 
the rear of the lot afterwards occupied by Riggins. 
Further out. Roach had erected the celebrated "Fort 
Roach." Ben. McDonald and Albert Campbell built 
a small house on Williams, street. Market street, 
then Bigler street, was not opened for some time, owing 
to Ben Hill's lot fence. His house was on the street, 
back of the Western Hotel. J. C. Linn commenced, 
but never completed, a three-story frame on the corner 
now occupied by the stone block on Wall and Main 



1858] RUFFIANS HAVE AN INNING. 109 

streets. Kelly's blacksmith shop stood on the point of 
the triangle between Wall and Market streets. 

RUFFIANS HAVE AN INNING. 

During the winter and early spring of 1858 there was 
much friction between Free-State men in Fort Scott 
and the ultra Pro-slavery party. The latter formed 
themselves into a secret society called the "Bloody 
Reds," which extended into the border counties of 
Missouri. Dr. George P. Hamilton was the head. The 
Western Hotel, then known better as the "Pro-slavery 
Hotel,'- was their "official" headquarters, although 
their favorite meeting place was at the house of Thomas 
Jackson, in Vernon County, Missouri. The Pro-slavery 
Hotel — now torn down — was on the opposite corner of 
the Plaza, directly facing the Free-State Hotel. 

The "Reds" had a special spite against George A. 
Crawford, Will Gallaher and Charles Diraon, and they 
decided to commence operations by driving them out of 
town. On the 27th of April they received the follow- 
ing note addressed to them : 

'Gentlemen : — You are respectfully invited to leave 
town in twenty-four hours. 

"Geo. p. Hamilton." 

Crawford sent this verbal answer : "I don't exchange 
messages with horse-thieves," and the crisis was on. 
There was no longer room for both factions. One or 
the other must go. The Free State party, numbering 
about twenty-five well armed men, decided they would 
stay, fight all comers and take the chances. Both 



no HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

parties assembled at the Free State and Pro-slavery 
hotels, respectively, and neither ventured out. B. F. 
Brantley and J. H. Little called on the Free State party 
and informed them that if the worst came they could 
count on them. But they felt doubtful about the 
soldiers, as, it will be remembered, Montgomery had 
killed one of them only a few days before, but E. A. 
Smith went into their camp and ascertained that they 
would at least remain neutral. Nevertheless, Brockett 
had secured three of them and secreted them in the 
Western Hotel. But the next day they were arrested 
and taken to camp under guard. 

This state of affairs continued until the next night, 
when the "Reds" raised the siege, and the most of them 
left, never to return, and were not heard of again until 
the Marais des Cygnes massacre, in which they were 
the leading actors. 

THE MARAIS DES CYGNES MURDER. 

The Marais des Cygnes massacre occurred on the 
19th of May, near the Trading Post. A body of 
twenty-five Border Ruffians, under the leadership of/ 
Captain Hamilton swooped down on the valley of Mine 
Creek, in Linn County, and gathering up eleven Free 
State men took them across the Marais des Cygnes 
river to a lonely ravine, formed them in line, and 
repeatedly fired into them, killing five outright and 
leaving all for dead. 

Ten of these Border Ruffians were well-known in 
Fort Scott. They were the Hamiltons, W. B. Brockett. 



18o8J MARAIS DES CYGNES MURDER. Ill 

Thomas Jackson, Harlan, Yealock, Beach, Griffith and, 
Matlock. The others were probably here more or less 
but their names are not certainly known. 

The Marais des Cygnes murder was in some respects 
the most atrocious that had yet occurred in the Terri- 
tory. It was a blow from organized extermination. The 
effect of this murder in the North was very great. It 
was taken up with more than usual feeling by the press, 
and the details were read in every Northern household. 
It was the blazing text of orators and the burning 
theme of poets. Altogether, it did much to shatter the 
elements of conservatism in the North, and shape a 
final crisis. 

The nearest a parallel was the Pottawatomie murders 
committed by old John Brown and his sons, on the 24th 
of May, 1856. Brown went to the houses of his victims 
in the dead of night, and killed them one at a time. 
The men killed, five in number, were also unwarned 
and unarmed. It is true they were Pro-slavery men, 
but — a third of a century has passed away. 

The actors of that time have taken their rightful 
places in public estimation. As for old John Brown, 
the prediction of his intimates did not take place that 
"the gallows would become as glorious as the Cross." 

About the time of the massacre Montgomery was in 
Johnson County, but arrived that night at the Trading 
Post, where he found about 200 men assembled. The 
next morning a pursuit was organized with Sheriff 
McDaniels, R. B. Mitchell and Montgomery at the 
head. They left for West Point, a town about twelve 
miles north, where it was believed Hamilton had taken 



112 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

refuge. But they failed to find an}- of the gang, but it 
is believed some of them were there hidden away by 
the citizens. Search has kept up and the border 
guarded for sometime. 

That fall Matlock was captured and taken to Paris, 
Linn County, for trial, but he escaped. In 1863 Wm. 
Griffith was arrested in Platte County, Missouri, and 
taken to Mound City for trial. He plead "not guilty" 
and set up the Amnest)^ Act as defense, but the jury 
found him guilty, and Judge S. O. Thatcher of this 
district sentenced him to death, and he was hanged 
October 30, 1863. Asa Hairgrove, one of the survivors 
of the massacre, acted as hangman. 

THE EFFECT ON THE BORDER. 

After the Marais des Cygnes murder the people all 
along the border were naturally much excited. They 
felt that this massacre was, in some sense, different and 
more alarming than any outrage that had yet occurred. 
They were used to hearing of murders, collisions 
between two factions, the sacking of towns, and of 
assassinations, but in these cases they were often 
the outcome of personal difficulties, or the animus was 
directed against persons or communities particularly 
objectionable. In this instance, however, they saw this 
armed band, sweeping in a semi-circle through the 
country, picking up one at a time these men who were 
absolutely inoflfensive and driving them to slaughter. 
It looked to them like their enemy was organizing for 
a forlorn hope, a last final struggle, the delivery of the 



1858] THE EFFECT ON THE BORDER. 113 

last venomous stroke of expiring energy. They did 
not know the day they, themselves, might not receive 
the stroke. Their fears were not altogether groundless. 
It is now known that this was only the first act of a 
pre-arranged plan for general murder and destruction. 

The people felt much incensed against Fort Scott. 
The citizens of the town had, however unwillingly, 
permitted these Border Ruffians to make it their regular 
stopping place and silently acquiesced in the establish- 
ment of their headquarters. The stigma naturally 
attached itself. 

The Governor, it is thought, realizing that there 
might be retaliatory measures taken by the Free State 
people, which must result in innocent bloodshed, had 
for that reason ordered a Deputy United States Marshal 
down to arrest Montgomery, or any other probable 
leader in such movement, and thus nip it in the bud. 
At any rate. Deputy Marshal Sam Walker was sent 
down here and arrived at Rayville on the 29th of May, 
with writs for Montgomery and some others. When he 
got to Rayville he found a large body of men who were 
being addressed by Montgomery in favor of proceeding 
to Fort Scott and executing vengeance on some few 
still there who were then believed to have been impli- 
cated with, and known to be in sympathy with the 
Hamilton crowd. On looking the ground over and 
feeling the sense of the people, Walker saw that was 
not the time or place to arrest Montgomery. But he 
made himself known, and, addressing the meeting, he 
informed them that if they would get out warrants for 
the arrest of G. W. Clark and others and furnish him 



114 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

with a posse, he would go to Fort Scott and make the 
arrests. The reply was that Judge Williams would not 
issue the writs. He told them to get warrants from a 
justice of the peace then, and, although it might not be 
strictly legal, he would arrest the parties nevertheless. 
This proposition was acted upon. He was furnished 
with the warrants and a posse of forty-four men. 
Montgomery went along. On Sunday morning, May 
30th, they entered Fort Scott, found G. W. Clark, and 
after considerable bluster on his part, arrested him. 
By this time Clark's friends had assembled in consider- 
able force, and Montgomery, knowing there were writs 
out for his arrest, concluded it would be discretion for 
him to "leak out.'' A demand was now made by 
Clark's friends that Mongomery be pursued and 
arrested. Walker, after consulting with Captain Na- 
thaniel Lyon, who was then stationed here, and then 
present, decided to do so. He turned his prisoner over 
to the military, overtook Montgomery and brought him 
back. After Clark's friends had taken a good look at 
"Old Jim Montgomery," Walker left with him for 
Lecompton for trial. But at Ray ville he was overtaken 
by a courier from Lyon informing him that Clark had 
been released by Judge Williams. This action dis- 
gusted and angered Walker, and he immediately turned 
Montgomery loose. 

At the time Clark was arrested feeling was running 
very high. It was critical. Had Clark seriously re- 
sisted arrest, Walker would have killed him, when 
Walker would in turn have been riddled, and there is 
no telling where it would have stopped. 



1858] AMNESTY. 115 



CHAPTER XVI.- 

AMNESTY. 

Governor j. w. denver, ou the 9th day of 

June, 1858, left Lecompton for a trip down the 
border, with a view of making a personal effort 
for the conciliation of the people. He was ac- 
companied by Charles Robinson, Judge John C. 
Wright, A. D. Richardson and others. On their 
road down they visited James Montgomery at his home 
in Linn county, and he joined their party there. 

They arrived at Fort Scott on the 13th. On the next 
day, the 14th, a public meeting was held on the Plaza, 
in front of the Free State Hotel. The people had gen- 
erally been notified that the Governor would be here 
for the purpose of trying to arrive at a basis for a treaty, 
and if possible to conclude terms of peace between the 
factions, and to agree on an amnesty for all past politi- 
cal offenses against the law by men of both parties. It 
seemed like every man in the county was there. The 
Governor had asked to meet them, and they came, but 
they, as well as the people of the town, were distrustful 
and excited. 

Governor Denver made the first speech in a quieting 
and conciliating tone and manner, which had a good 



118 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

effect. He was followed by Judge Wright, of Law- 
rence, and B. F, Brantley, of Fort Scott, in the same 
strain. After they got through Gov. E. Ransom took 
the stand. Ransom was quite an old man. He had been 
Governor of Michigan, and was a man of more than 
ordinary intelligence, although narrow-minded and 
bigoted in his views, and had always been thoroughly 
Pro-slavery in feeling. He began his speech by a ter- 
rific denunciation of the Free State people for having 
brought on the condition of affairs that then existed. 
He had only fairly started on this tirade when he was 
interrupted by Judge Wright who stepped in his front, 
facing him, and denied the statements he was making 
in a very sharp and emphatic manner. Governor Den- 
ver, whose attention had been called away for a 
moment, then sprang in between them, and sharply 
told them that sort of thing must stop, and speaking 
to Ransom, he said: "Governor Ransom, you area 
much older man than I. I did not expect this kind of 
conduct on your part ; I had a right to expect some- 
thing different from you. You must stop that kind of 
talk. You must take your seat and be quiet." And 
he did take his seat, and kept quiet. 

This account is in Governor Denver's own words. In 
an address published by the State Historical Society, 
Governor Denver continues the account of this day's 
proceedings as follows : 

"To make a long story short, I prevailed upon all 
the county officers of Bourbon County to resign their 
offices, and then I told the people, that while I had the 
right to appoint any man I pleased to fill the vacancies, 



1858] AMNESTY. \Vi 

that I desired an expression of their wishes in the 
matter, and that I wanted them to hold an election 
right then and there, and that I would receive it as 
instructions as to whom to appoint to those offices. 
They asked me how they should do it. I told them to 
set up their candidates, place them out at one side of 
the public square, one here and another there, and let 
their friends form a line on the right and on the left. 
They placed their candidates out, and I gave the word 
to march. The people then formed. I then appointed 
two men to count them. They then counted them and 
reported to me the number they had found for each can- 
didate. The first was for Sheriff, I think. Then for 
the next office we went through the same ceremony, 
and the election was held in that way. I gave them a 
certificate of appointment, and as soon as I got back to 
Lecompton I sent them their commissions." 

This was a critical day in Fort Scott. The men of 
all parties and shades of politics. Border Ruffian, Jay- 
hawker, Pro-slavery, ultra radical Abolitionists, Free 
State Republicans and Free State Democrats were all 
here together and facing each other. Before the speak- 
ing they had already began to divide and separate into 
parties, and at that moment the exchange of hot words or 
any ofiensive act would have precipitated a bloody battle. 

The officers "elected" that day were as follows: For 
Sheriff, Thomas R. Roberts; for County Commissioners, 
or County Supervisors, as they were called, Thomas W. 
Tallman of Fort Scott, M. E. Hudson of Mapleton, 
Bryant Bauguess of Drywood, Jacob J. Hartley and 
Joab Teague of Marmaton. These men were given 
certificates of election by the Governor, who afterwards 
sent them their commissions from Lecompton. 



Il8 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

At the first meeting of the Board, held soon after, 
Horatio Knowles was appointed Clerk of the Board, 
and some townships were organized. 

PROTOCOL OF PEACE. 

After the election the meeting was adjourned to meet 
at Rayville on the next day. At Rayville Governor 
Denver addressed the crowd, and after the speech" he 
proposed the following as a basis for a treaty of peace : 

1. Withdrawal of troops from Fort Scott. 

2. The election of new officers for Bourbon County 
without reference to party. 

3. Troops to be stationed along the State line to 
guard against invasion from Missouri. 

4. Suspension of the execution of old writs until 
their legality be authenticated by the proper tribunal. 

5. Montgomery and his men, and all other bodies of 
armed men on both sides to abandon the field and disperse. 

After Governor Denver had concluded, Montgomery 
was called for. Montgomery was recognized as the 
party of the second part by the treaty making powers; 
the leading and representative spirit of the aggressive 
and self-protecting element of the Free State men of 
Bourbon County. The men at this meeting were not a 
band of marauders. They were men who lived and in- 
tended to continue to live in this county, and they had 
determined to have peace if they had to fight for it. 

There was a hush of intense interest when Mont- 
gomery took the stand. 

He immediately accepted the terms of the Gov^ernor's 
proposition. He continued, thanking the Governor for 



1858] MONTGOMERY SIZED UP. 119 

the interest he had taken in their affairs, the evident 
spirit of justice by which he seemed to be actuated ; 
that peace, so long a stranger to this part of the country, 
was above all things, what he and the people most 
desired, and that if the Governor redeemed the pledges 
that day made, he would retire to his cabin and use his 
best efforts to prevent any further trouble. 

The moderate Pro-slavery men, and the more 
conservative men of all parties were satisfied with the 
amnesty, as they called it, and for several months all 
seemed to strive to preserve the peace and tranquility 
which was thus restored. 

MONTGOMERY SIZED UP. 

James Montgomery in the general estimation of the 
people, is often rated and classed with J. H. Lane, John 
Brown and C. R. Jennison. He ought not to be so 
held. He was a different kind of a man. Their lives 
were in no ways parallel. He was no coward, assassin, 
crank, fanatic or murderer. 

"He wore no knife to slaughter sleeping men." 

His sincere desire was to see Kansas a free State. 
He was in spmpathy and co-operation with the men 
who made Kansas a free State. He was an instrument 
of the men who were holding at bay that party and 
that principle which were attempting to force slavery 
upon Kansas by the most outrageous violation of all 
personal and political rights. He was of the Free 
State party who were "holding the fort until the 
Republican party could arrive." 



120 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNT Y. [1858 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SOME MORE ARRIVALS. 

N the first part of June, 1858, William Smith and 
wife arrived at Fort Scott with their son William 
H. and daughter Mary. The elder son, Edward 
A., was already here. Mr. Smith was born in 
; Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1810. He was a printer 
by trade and worked for some years for Harper 
Bros, in New York, after his arrival in this country in 
1830. "Uncle Billy Smith" was a man of strong, 
sturdy qualities, somewhat "set in his way," but with 
a large heart and warm sympathies. His wife, "Aunt 
Jane," was a noble, Christian woman. Mrs. Smith, 
with Mrs. Alec McDonald, organized the first Presby- 
terian church in Fort Scott, in the next November after 
their arrival. 

John F. White came early in June, from Pennsylvania. 
He was absent from Fort Scott most of the time for two 
years or more, conducting the general store of George 
A. Crawford & Co., at the Trading Post. Then he 
returned and opened a store of his own. He was 
afterward. County Treasurer for four years. Jack was a 
noble man. 

Charles F. Drake arrived June 17, 1858, from Mt. 



1858] AFTER THE AMNESTY. l2l 

Vernon, Ohio. He came just after the Denver meeting 
and compromise, having walked into town from the 
Osage, and arrived here dusty, ragged and hungry. 
Finding a rather peaceful condition of things just then 
he decided to remain, and soon after started a small 
hardware store and tin-shop, the first one in Southern 
Kansas, Thus he commenced pounding and soldering 
together the elements of his successful future. He, 
however, always found time to "be into" and help 
engineer nearly all the enterprises which have since 
been inaugurated in Fort Scott. 

Our railroad enterprises have all felt the necessity of 
having the assistance of C. F. Drake, and most of them 
his signature also. He placed the Foundry on its feet 
and held it up for some years. He built the first 
Cement works, aided in the details by A. H. Bourne, 
Dr. B. F. Hepler and B. F. Gardner. He helped 
establish the First National Bank, and later, the Bank 
of Fort Scott ; he shouldered largely the responsibility 
in the erection of the Water Works and Sugar works, 
and has built his share of the fine business houses in 
the city. 

Mr. Drake is a man of much more than average 
financial ability, and his life might well be taken as a 
model by any young business man. 

AFTER THE AMNESTY. 

In the latter part of June, 1858, Capt. Nathaniel 
Lyon, then in command of the United States troops 
at Fort Scott, wrote to Governor Denver that: — 



122 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

"The agreement made by the people here on the 
occasion of your late visit has been entered upon in 
good faith, and to this time fully observed." 

The newly appointed Sherifif, T. R. Roberts, at once 
commenced active work against the horse-thieves, 
especially the gang running with our old acquaintance 
"Rev." J. E. Stewart, who had again returned. This 
man Stewart and his men had rendezvous on the Osage 
and on Drywood, and were sheltered and protected 
quite as often by men claiming to belong to one side as 
the other. 

A considerable number of horses and other stock 
stolen by organized bands of theives, were recovered 
during the summer and returned to their owners by 
Sheriff Roberts. The Fort Scott Democrat of date of 
July 8th, has this to say: "Sheriff Roberts has recov- 
ered nearly all the horses stolen by Rev. J. E. Stewart." 

One day Sheriff Roberts and his posse were out to 
arrest some men who had been with Stewart the spring- 
before, and who had now slipped back again. Rube 
Forbes was one of them, and he was one of the men 
Roberts wanted. Dave Forbes, a brother of Rube, was 
along with the posse. When they got up near Maple- 
ton, they met Rube, or saw him at some little distance 
in the road. They all knew him at once. Rube knew 
them also, and fixed himself for a run by throwing 
away everything loose and tucking his Sharp's rifle 
down under his leg. Dave, as soon as he saw him, 
rushed his horse in front of the posse and shouted to 
Rube to run. Then facing the posse and raising his 
revolver, he said: "Gentlemen, that man is my 



1858] IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE. 123 

brother; the first man that attempts to shoot him is a 
dead man." And he held that posse until Rube had 
time to get away. 

Soon after peace was restored, Geo, A. Crawford 
made a trip to Washington to effect the removal of Geo. 
W. Clark, who had been so long in the Land Office. 
This he succeeded in doing, although Clark was the 
pet of somebody near the Administration, who immedi- 
ately secured for him a fat appointment in the U. S. 
Navy. But this section of country was rid of him for 
all time. 

G. W. Clark was at heart a bad man. His methods 
were sneaking and underhanded. He held his office 
under false pretenses and under a false name, the rec- 
ords of the Land office bearing his name as Doak. He 
planned and instigated more devilment among his class 
of rabid Pro-slavery men than any other man on the 
border. He was not in the Marais des Cygnes murder, 
but he was in the secret council that planned it in the 
"dark recesses" of the Western Hotel. Had he and 
his friends then in Fort Scott ever obtained what they 
thought to be a sufficient advantage, their first stroke 
would have fallen on Crawford, Gallaher, Dimon, Mc- 
Donald, Campbell, Tallman and others, instead of the 
wholly unprotected and unwary men who formed that 
fated line on the banks of the Marais des Cygnes. 

IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE. 

During the summer the work of improvement went 
on satisfactorily. Hill & Riggins and Wilson, Gordon 



124 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

& Ray erected their new stores on Market street and 
occupied them. The Demoa-at had moved to the sec- 
ond floor of the Town Company's building; the Com- 
pany occupied the front room, and the post-office the 
back room of the lower floor. Two Swedes erected the 
great barn-like building at the Southeast corner of the 
Plaza, one of them — the big one — packing most of the 
lumber from the mill on his shoulders, and C. F, Drake 
occupied the east room for his stove and tin store. 
William Smith erected a dwelling at the corner of Scott 
avenue and Locust street. Charley Goodlander put up 
his shop on the east side of Scott avenue. 

EXIT I.ECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 

Governor Denver had designated the 2nd of August, 
1858,1 as the day for the election on the Lecompton 
Constitution, as submitted by the provisions of the 
English Bill. , 

The election took place on that day, with the follow- 
ing result in Bourbon County : 

Against. For. 

Rayville, 53 . 

Sprattsville, 18 . 

Mapleton, 84 . 

Marmaton, 41 . 

Osage, 30 . 

Mill Creek, 26 . 

Drywood, 50 ... 13 

Fort Scott, 81 ... 19 



Total, 383 . 



Zl 



1858] EXIT LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. 125 

The total vote in the Territory was : 

Against the Constitution, 11,300 

For the Constitution, 1,788 

Majority against, 9>5i2 

And that was the last of the Lecompton Constitution. 
It was born in iniquity and shame; left in all its squalor 
on the steps of the White House; there reclothed, a 
bribe for its adoption hanged around its neck and then 
returned to the place of its nativity, only to be spurned 
into a timely grave. 

Thus perished the last hope of the incipient Confed- 
eracy that they could ever add Kansas to their territory. 
They gave up the fight. The struggle was over. Kansas 
was free. 



126 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

AMNESTY BROKEN. 

SrPHE regular election for member of the Territorial 
b^ Legislature was held on October 4, 1858. Bourbon 

County was in the 12th District. Thomas R. 

Roberts was elected the member for this county. 

On the loth of October Governor Denver resigned, 

and Hugh S. Walsh became Acting Governor until 
the appointment of Samuel Medary, of Ohio, Governor 
Medary arrived at Lecompton on December ijtli and 
assumed the office of Governor. 

The truce agreed to in June had been generally ob- 
served and nothing objectionable to any party occurred 
until in November, when stealing commenced again. 
The houses of Poyner and Lemons, two farmers living 
north of Fort Scott, were robbed, and many other dep- 
radations were committed. It is not known who com- 
mitted all these robberies, but they were generally laid 
onto "Montgomery's men." Some of the robberies 
were probably committed by men who had, at some 
time or other, been with Montgomery. There was no 
"politics" in it more than there would be now days in 
any plain case of stealing, nor had it anything what- 



1858] AMNESTY BROKEN. 127 

ever to do with the amnesty agreement further than a 
tendency to "stir things up." 

About the 17th of November, 1858, a man named 
Ben Rice, who had figured more or less as a Jayhawker 
was arrested on old indictments for crimes committed 
before the amnesty. It was said one indictment was 
for the murder of old man Travis who had been killed 
on the Osage nearly a year before. The arrest of Rice, 
although it was made by a Free State ojfficer, on an 
indictment found by a grand jury, partly, at least, 
of Free State men, was regarded by many as a deliberate 
rupture of the treaty of peace and amnesty, which 
would be followed by the indictment and arrest of all 
who had been active in the border difficulties, and that 
the revival or resumption of the execution of old writs 
for past offenses of a political nature would fall only on 
men of the Free State party, as most of the men of the 
Pro-slavery party who were liable under the law for 
crimes and misdemeanors had been driven out or had 
voluntarily left the Territory. 

Montgomery also regarded the arrest of Rice on such 
an indictment as a violation of the agreement with the 
Governor of June 15th. He argued that all offenses 
committed prior to that date should be "amnested." 
The other side claimed that the agreement was, substan- 
tially, that for past offences no arrests should be made 
except on duly authenticated indictments by grand 
juries. Such in fact was the real spirit and intent of 
the Denver agreement. 

Then followed a couple of weeks of uneasiness and 
growing dissatisfaction, when a meeting was called at 



128 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

Rayville to endeavor to quiet things down again. W. 
R. Griffith was j)resident, J. C. Burnett and Rev. M. 
Brockman, vice-presidents, and J. E. Jones, secretary. 
Montgomery, in a speech interpreted the June agree- 
ment, claiming that amnesty was of the essence of that 
treaty, etc. A motion that offenses committed prior to 
June 15th be referred to grand juries of the proper 
counties was lost. On the other hand, a motion to 
forcibly release Rice was also lost. There was some 
further discussion, but it was impossible to agree on 
any line of action, and Montgomery determined on the 
release of Rice. 

RELEASE OF RICE — DEATH OF UTTLE. 

On the night of the 15th of December, 1858, a party 
with the purpose of releasing Ben Rice from custody 
assembled at the house of old man Wimsett, about three 
miles west of Fort Scott on the Marmaton river. The 
leaders present were old John Brown, Montgomery and 
Jennison. These men had with them their lieutenants 
and particular followers which they had brought down 
with them from Linn County, of about fifteen men each. 
On the Osage they were joined by some twenty more 
and five or six were added to their force on the way 
down through the county, making the aggregate 
number at Wimsett's sixty-eightor seventy men. They 
also brought down a small cannon, then owned by the 
Mound City people — now in possession of the State 
Historical Society — which they called "Betsy." Alec 
Howard, of Osage, hauled Betsy down in a two-horse 
wagon. 



1858J DEATH OF LITTLE. 129 

A general council was then held by the prominent 
men to arrange details. The question of who should 
command the expedition came up. Brown wanted to 
lead. He claimed he was the oldest man and oldest in 
the border war and should have command. He defined 
his plan of campaign as the absolute destruction of the 
town and the killing of all who resisted. Hazlett, 
Whipple, Kagi and some few others supported Brown. 
Montgomery claimed that he should lead; that the 
people of the Osage country, in both counties looked to 
him and relied on him, and he knew their wishes; that 
he had been their representative in the Denver agree- 
ment, and in all the public meetings at Rayville and 
other points; that the sole and only object of the expe- 
dition was the release of Rice, and that not a single 
house should be burned or a man killed, and finally, in 
the most arbitrary manner he declared that he was and 
would continue in command. Jennison had nothing to 
say. He was there to go in with anybody and run his 
chances. He afterwards, in a published "sketch of his 
life" claimed that he was the leader, but his leadership 
began after the store was broken open and the goods in 
sight. The party then started for Fort Scott, crossing 
the Marmaton at the California ford. Brown remained 
at Wimsett's. The affair had assumed too insignificant 
proportions for the great "Liberator" to fool with, 
especially if he couldn't boss the job. 

After their arrival at the edge of town, at the house of 
J. N. Roach, called "Fort Roach" by the boys, which 
was a log house near the present corner of National 
avenue and First street, they halted and there formed 



130 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

into three squads of twenty men each. It was now 
just daylight, between six and seven o'clock. On 
reaching the Free State Hotel, where they had previ- 
ously ascertained Rice was kept, the first division 
passed quietly by the right to the rear of the house, 
the second squad to the left, and the third mounted the 
big flight of stairs in front and passed on up to the 
third story, where they found Rice and quickly released 
him. While this was going on a tragedy was being 
enacted in the building just across the alley from the 
hotel. This building, still standing, was built by the 
Government for quartermaster's stores. It is a long, one- 
story frame house, and was at this time occupied by 
Little & Son as a general store. A partition had been 
run through lengthwise, and the part next to the hotel 
was the storeroom, and the other part was occupied by 
the Little family. The store had a front entrance and 
also a side door. John Little and George A. Crawford, 
for that night, were sleeping in the store. The noise 
made by the rescuing party aroused their attention. 
Just then they heard some one cry "Jayhawkers ! " 
Then Little grabbed his gun, opened the front door a 
few inches and, seeing an armed mob, fired on them, 
lodging a load of duck-shot in the heavy overcoat worn 
by Hazlett. Kagi, standing near Hazlett, instantly 
fired at the door, putting a ball through it just above 
Little's head. Little then locked the front door and 
went to the side door, placed a goods box against 
it and mounted it in order to see through the transom 
what was going on. The glass in the window was 
dusty and he took his white handkerchief and was 



1858] • DEATH OF LITTLE. 131 

cleaning a spot so he could see out better, when Capt. 
Whipple, standing about at the corner of the hotel, 
seeing the handkerchief moving, fired at it with his 
Sharp's rifle. The bullet struck Little in the forehead, 
and he dropped to the floor and expired in a few 
minutes. Then the uproar commenced. The Jay- 
hawkers thought there were armed men in the store. 
The cannon was brought up to bear on the house. 
Some one shouted that there were women and children 
in the house. Then the doors were all opened or 
broken down, front and rear. They found no one in 
the front part of the store but Mr. Crawford and the 
dying Little. They assisted Mr. Crawford in carrying 
Mr. Little around to the part of the house in which the 
family lived. 

In the meantime several citizens had made their 
appearance, and as fast as they did so they were arrested. 
Colonel and Mrs. Wilson, in the next house to the hotel, 
came out on the porch and were ordered down on the 
sidewalk among the other prisoners. Alec McDonald, 
living in the next house to Colonel Wilson's, came out. 
Jennison, standing on the sidewalk in front of Wilson's, 
ordered him to surrender and come down there. Mc- 
Donald declined the invitation and darted inside the 
door just as Jennison let go at him with his rifle. The 
ball is in the door now. 

Montgomery, seeing Mrs. Wilson, thought he saw in 
her face a resemblance to Dr. Hogan, who had once 
befriended him when they all lived in Missouri. On 
ascertaining that Dr. Hogan was her brother, he at 
once released her and the Colonel and promised that 



132 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1858 

their store should not be disturbed, but "requested" 
that the Colonel furnish some of his men with break- 
fast. The Colonel ordered breakfast at the Western 
Hotel for thirty, but the men did not stay to eat it. 

The jayhawkers on breaking open Little's store, seeing 
the dry goods, boots, saddles, etc., began to help them- 
selves. Jennison was in there. He took one of the 
new saddles, turned it over on the floor and piled dry 
goods and things on it, then buckled the surcingle over 
them, poked his gun through the bundle, shouldered it 
and walked off. He looked liked the cuts in newspapers 
and hand-bills of those days advertising slaves. 

C. F. Drake, Crawford and others went to Montgom- 
ery and tried to have him stop the stealing. He did 
try to, but the fellows had got a taste and he could not 
control them. He did, however, succeed, like in time 
of a big fire, in "confining it to one block." 

Little made a fatal mistake in firing the first shot into 
the mob. While it cannot be stated without question 
that if there had been no resistance or show of arms 
there would have been no bloodshed or firing on un- 
armed citizens by the rescuing party, it is altogether 
probable that such would have been the case. There 
was a bad element along, headed by Jennison, who only 
awaited an excuse like being first fired on to shoot at 
any body they saw, or commit any depredation. 

George Stockmyer, Mr. Tabor and Mr. Johnson, 
living in the neighborhood of Dayton, learned of the 
proposed attempt to release Rice the day before, and 
with a view of preventing probable trouble, started 
that night for Fort Scott with the intention of inform- 



1858] DEA TH OF LITTLE. 133 

ing the proper officers and getting them to release Rice 
in advance of the mob. But they were prevented for 
some reason, and did not get in until too late. 

The tragic death of John H. Little was much regret- 
ted by all who knew him, not only in town, but 
throughout the country where he was well acquainted. 
Every body knew "Little & Son," and Little's Store. 
He was a man of strong Pro-slavery prejudices, but of 
late he had nothing to do with politics, but was attend- 
ing strictly to the business aflfairs of the store. 

The right name of the man who shot Little was 
Aaron D. Stevens, who was then going under the 
assumed name of ' 'Capt. Whipple. ' ' He had a singular 
history. At the age of fifteen he went into the Mexi- 
can war and, young as he was, he distinguished him- 
self for undaunted courage. After the war his command 
started home across the plains. One day an officer was 
grossly abusing a private soldier. Whipple witnessed 
it as long as he could stand it and then turned in and 
whaled the officer nearly to death. For that Whipple 
was sent to Leavenworth, tried, and sentenced to be 
shot. But he escaped. In January, 1856, he turned 
up at Topeka, got in with the boys, and was made 
Captain. Later he joined John Brov/n and died with 
him for the Harper's Ferry business, as did also the 
men called Kajji and Hazlett. 



134 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 



CHAPTER XIX.- 

MILITIA ORGANIZED, 

■grPHE incidents which had occurred during the last 
^§ of December renewed the excitement throughout 
the county. The citizens of Fort Scott and the 
neighborhood made application to Governor 
Medary for troops. The Governor having no 
troops to send advi.^ed the organization of home 
militia to act with the Marshal in enforcing the law. 
They acted on his suggestion and the organization of 
militia companies was begun about the first of the 
year. John Hamilton, the old sergeant of the regular 
army, who was here when the post was established in 
1842, was captain of the first company, and C. F. 
Drake lieutenant. Another company was organized by 
Alex. McDonald, W. T. Campbell, A. R. Allison and 
W. C. Denison. Two or three other companies were 
started; they had plenty of men for officers, but they 
ran out of men for privates. They finally concluded 
that, as the weather was pretty cold anyway, they 
would let old John Hamilton run the military depart- 
ment. Being an old soldier he immediately brought 
matters into military shape, with roll-call, guard 
mounting, drill, etc. Their arms were all private 
property and were of as heterogeneous a character as 



1859] MILITIA ORGANIZED. 135 

could well be imagined — flint-lock muskets, rifles of 
every imaginable pattern, shot-guns, carbines and pistols. 

On application of Governor Medary a quantity of 
smooth-bore muskets were sent to the end of the Pacific 
railroad, whence, during the month of January, 1859, 
they were escorted to Paris by a company from Linn 
County. On the trip. Captain Weaver, in charge of 
the party, in drawing a loaded gun from a wagon, was 
accidentally shot and killed. 

The greater part of the month of January was spent 
in drilling. The force was divided into three com- 
panies under Captains Hamilton, McDonald and 
Campbell. J. E. Jones, A. McDonald and W. T. 
Campbell were appointed Deputy U. S. Marshals. The 
men were all regularly mustered and sworn in. 

Sunday morning, January 30, 1859, a company of 
fifty men started for Paris after the new arms. The 
trip occupied four days and on their return preparations 
were at once made to go in pursuit of the Jayhawkers. 
The entire mounted force marched at midnight on the 
4th of February. Hamilton's company reached the 
Ivittle Osage, near the present Fort Lincoln, at daybreak. 

For three days they scoured the Little Osage country 
clear to its head, riding almost continuously, and 
returned to Fort Scott at midnight of the 7th with 
about a dozen prisoners, completely worn out. 

After a few days' rest they proceeded with their 
prisoners to Lawrence, where they were to be tried. 

The difficulties in Southeastern Kansas early engaged 
the attention of the Legislature, to whom the Governor 
had presented his version of the matter. To remedy 



136 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 

the evils in this part of the Territory the jurisdiction 
of Douglas county was extended over the infected dis- 
trict, and all persons were ordered to be brought to 
Lawrence for trial, away from the scene of strife. That 
is the reason these prisoners are being taken there. 

LAWRENCE AND FORT SCOTT GET ACQUAINTED, 

Continuing their journey they camped at Black Jack 
on the night of the 14th. Next morning, at the Waka- 
rusa. Marshal Campbell met them with the news of the 
passage of the "Amnesty Act," and the captives were 
turned loose. The wagons and most of the men at 
once set out on their return to Fort Scott. Some, 
desirous of visiting Lawrence, since they were so near, 
and with no suspicion of the reception they would 
receive, rode on. As they quietly pursued their way 
up Massachusetts street, and had almost reached the 
Eldridge House, the cry was raised in the crowd that 
Hamilton, their Captain, was the Hamilton of Marais 
des Cygnes fame. In a moment they were beset by a 
fierce mob numbering several hundred. Resistance was 
useless. Putting spurs to their horses they dashed for 
the prairie. But the mob was ahead of them. As they 
galloped down New Hampshire street they received a 
perfect avalanche of bullets, brick-bats, rocks, mud and 
sticks. In a short time they were completely hemmed in, 
and then there was nothing for it but to surrender. But 
everything was explained after awhile and they were 
treated with the greatest consideration during the 
remainder of their stay in that city. 



1859] COUNTY SEAT MOVED. ' 137 

One good result of this affair was that Lawrence and 
Fort Scott became better acquainted, and the bad im- 
pressions and prejudices of both towns which had 
existed against each other were, to a great extent, re- 
moved. Fort Scott's opinion of Lawrence was that it 
consisted principally of jayhawkers and thieves, and 
Lawrence was entirely certain that Fort Scott contained 
nothing but Border Ruffians, with Doc Hamilton as 
Mayor and Brockett as Police Judge. When they 
found that the Fort Scott people were, like the best 
men of their own town, only interested in the peace 
and prosperity of Kansas, they felt most kindly towards 
them, and from that day both communities drew a 
clearer line between "jayhawkers" and good citizens. 

The ' 'Amnesty Act' ' mentioned was passed by the Leg- 
islature only a short time before, and was to this effect : 

Sec I. That no criminal offenses heretofore com- 
mitted in the counties of Lykins, Linn, Bourbon, Mc- 
Gee, Allen and Anderson, growing out of any political 
difference of opinion, shall be subject to any prosecu- 
tion on complaint or indictment in any court whatsoever 
in this Territory. 

"Sec. 2. That all actions now commenced growingout 
of political differences of opinion, shall be dismissed." 

This act, taking effect immediately after its passage, 
pardoned and liberated all political prisoners then in 
custody within the designated limits. 

COUNTY SEAT MOVED. 

In the winter of 1859 the county seat was moved from 



138 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 

Fort Scott to Marmaton City. There was a combina- 
tion of circumstances which eflfected this removal. 
There was a feeling that the records and other propert}' 
of the county would be more secure away from Fort 
Scott. There was also considerable feeling of animosity 
against that town, as the result of old prejudices, and it 
is probable, also, that a scheme for a real estate specu- 
lation, headed by T. R. Roberts, the Representative in 
the Legislature, had something to do with it. At any 
rate the records were moved, and the first meeting of 
the County Board was held on the 25th day of February, 
1859. At this meeting the townships of Freedom, 
Franklin and Marmaton were organized. 

The people of Fort Scott sat still and saw the records 
and offices moved away without much protest, as they, 
even then, relied on their "natural advantages" for the 
future of their town. But C. F. Drake and a few others 
realized the necessity for having the County Seat at Fort 
Scott, if it was in future to be the principal town in the 
county, and they went to work to recover it, as will be 
seen hereafter. 

PREPARING FOR ANOTHER CONSTITUTION. 

On the 7th of March, 1859, Governor Medary issued 
a proclamation calling an election for or against holding 
a Constitutional Convention, in order to ascertain 
whether or not the people wished a State government. 

This election was held on the 28th of March, 1859. 
It was the first step under the movement for the Wyan- 
dotte Constitution. 



1859] AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 139 

Bourbon County voted as follows : 

For a Constitutional Convention 333 

Against a Constitutional Convention 47 

Majority for 286 

The total vote in the Territory was : 

For a Constitutional Convention 5i3o6 

Against i)425 

Majority for 3, 881 

This was a very light vote. There was but little 
division of public sentiment on the question, and no 
contest at the polls. Everybody was in favor of a State 
government, except a few bad smelling politicians, old 
time Jayhawkers and Border Ruffians, whose "political 
principles" had degenerated into the sole desire to see 
the country kept embroiled and the field kept open for 
plundering, thieving and guerrilla warfare. 

AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 

The spring of 1859 opened and continued fairly sea- 
sonable, except there was a little too much rain. 
Even up to June the rivers and streams, from the 
Marais des Cygnes down, were often past fording, and 
sometimes out of their banks. But, nevertheless, the 
prospect for growing crops was good, and there had been 
much more planting than ever before. 

Emigrants were coming into the Territory in large 
numbers, although that year the "Pike's Peak" excite- 
ment was at its height, which diverted much the larger 



140 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 

stream of emigration to the gold fields of the Rocky 
Mountains. 

Bourbon County, however, in spite of the troubles, 
trials and vexations she had passed through, in spite of 
the marauding of irresponsible men, which had cast an 
odium on her good name, and in spite of the heretofore 
almost lawless condition of society, was, nevertheless, 
receiving a fair share of good farmers and good men. 
The valleys of the Osage, Marmaton and Drywood were 
filling up, and the high open prairie was being intruded 
upon by the cabin and corral. Towns were springing 
up, — Dayton, Xenia, Uniontown, Rockford, Cato, — all 
with at least a store, and a post office. 

The names of all who settled in the county that year 
should be recorded here, but it is impossible. They 
came in too thick. 

Fort Scott received a good increase in population 
during 1859, also. Among the many coming in that 
year was C. W. Blair. 

Charles W. Blair located in Fort Scott in the spring 
of 1859. He was born in Georgetown, Ohio, February 
5, 1829. -^^ studied law when a youth and at the age 
of twenty-one was Prosecuting Attorney for his county. 
December 25, 1858, he was married to Miss Katherine 
Medary, daughter of Hon. Samuel Medary, who was 
soon afterwards appointed Governor of Kansas Territory. 
He was accompanied to Fort Scott by his old law 
tutor, Hon. Andrew Ellison, and they entered imme- 
diately upon the practice of law, which has been the 
occupation of his life except the interim during the 
late war. Blair was always a Free State Democrat, 



1859] AN ALL-AROUND GOOD YEAR. 141 

and after Siimpter was fired on he was a War Democrat 
in the full sense of the term. He began his war 
service by raising the first company of soldiers organ- 
ized in Fort Scott. Afterwards, he passed through the 
several grades of Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel, 
and in the latter part of the war was promoted Brigadier 
General, at the special request of U. S. Grant. His 
star was, in part, gained on the bloody ridge of Wilson 
Creek, when, after the incompetent "political General" 
Sigel was crushed and his guns taken, and he discovered 
he was fighting Americans, the rebel host turned in 
full force on the main line — when, after the noble 
Mitchell and Deitzler, of the First and Second Kansas, 
had fallen badly wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Blair 
took command of both those stunned and shattered 
regiments, rallied them into line on the right of the 
Iowa men and advanced to the ringing call of Lyon : 
"Come on, brave men, I will lead you." 




U2 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 



CHAPTER XX. 

DELEGATES TO THE WYANDOTTE CONVENTION. 

o'TPHE election of delegates to the Wyandotte Con- 
^§ stitutional Convention occurred on the 4th of June. 
The candidates for delegates from Bourbon County 
were J. C. Burnett and W. R. Griffith, Republicans, 
\ and Ezra Gilbert and Hugh Glen, Democrats. The 
' election resulted as follows : 

J. C. Burnett, 281 

W. R. Griffith, 294 

Ezra Gilbert, 229 

Hugh Glen, 229 

In the Territory 14,000 votes were cast. The Repub- 
licans elected 35 and the Democrats 17 delegates. The 
Convention was to meet at Wyandotte on the 5th of 
July, 1859. 

Affairs in Bourbon County were now quiet. Peace 
had apparently come to stay. As the 4th of July ap- 
proached the people decided to celebrate in the good 
old-fashioned way. Meetings were held, committees 
appointed and all the preliminary arrangements made. 
They proposed to invite everybody to come and partic- 
ipate, and give them a good dinner. The preparations 
were on an enormous scale. There were loads of cooked 



1859] WYANDOTTE CONVENTION. 143 

beef, pork and mutton, mountains of bread; immense 
quantities of cake and pie, prepared by the ladies. A 
four-horse wagon load of ice was brought from the 
Marais des Cygnes at a cost of lo cents per pound, for 
manufacture of lemonade. The ground selected was 
in the bottom, just west of the point of the bluff back 
of town, near the big spring. Governor Ransom was 
President of the Day; Hon. Jos. Williams, Colonel 
Judson, Judge Farwell, M. E. Hudson, Thomas Helm, 
W. T. Campbell and Colonel Morin, Vice-presidents; 
Rev. Mr. Thompson, Chaplain; Mason Williams, Reader; 
Iv. A. McCord, Orator. 

The crowd was immense; the usual proceedings were 
had; all were filled, some of them apparently for a 
month ahead. 

A GRAND BALIv. 

In the evening there was a "grand ball" at the Fort 
Scott Hotel. Again Joe Ray "called," assisted by C. 
W. Goodlander. The boys were supplied with "invi- 
tations" printed on small sheets of note paper, with 
display type and gold-tinted letters, gotten up in the 
very best style of the job office. 

The boys would take these "ball tickets," fill in the 
name of their "first choice," and in the event that she 
was already engaged or couldn' t go, would fill out another 
invitation and send to some other girl. Keep trying. 

The colored people had a ball that same night, just 
in the rear of the hotel. They didn't have to go to the 
expense of music or the trouble of "calling." They 
just waited till the white folks started up, and then 
went at it with a whoop. 



144 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 

THK FORT SCOTT "DEMOCRAT" REVIVED. 

Sometime before this, J. E. Jones had suspended the 
publication of the Democrat^ and left town. The Town 
Company, who owned the material, was desirous that 
the paper should be revived, so negotiations with that 
end in view, were opened with William Smith and his 
son, E. A. Smith, who decided to give it a trial. The 
first number under their management was issued on the 
14th of July, 1859, ^^^^ th^y continued its publication 
regularly until the summer of 1861, some time after the 
breaking out of the war, when E. A. Smith left the 
editorial chair and went into the army. 

In 1882 he published in one of the city papers a 
considerable amount of excerpts from the Democrat^ 
something in the diary form, which he said "was not 
designed as a connected narative or history, but rather 
as data which may aid some one else in such a work." 
These data were principally in reference to events which 
occurred in Fort Scott, and were of great assistance in the 
preparation of this work, especially in the matter of dates. 

The advertising columns of the first number of the 
Democrat show at that time a very respectable business 
community. Of lawyers there were Ellison & Blair, 
William Margrave, S. A. Williams, John C. Sims, C. 
P. Bullock, Richard Stadden, Williams & Bro. (Mason 
and Wm. M.,) James J. Farley, George A. Crawford, and 
L. A. McCord ; there were doctors J. H. Couch, A. M. 
H. Bills, and A. G. Osbun. E. A. Smith was County 
Surveyor. General merchandise was represented by H. 
T. Wilson, Hill & Riggins, George A. Crawford & Co. 



1859] WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTION. 145 

John S. Caulkins was in the clothing, Malone in the 
grocery, and C. F. Drake in the stove and tinware busi- 
ness. Then there were Robert Blackett and Daniel 
Funk, tailors ; C. W. Goodlander and Dennison & 
Waterhouse, carpenters ; John G. Stuart, carriage and 
wagon maker ; E. L. Marble, boot and shoemaker ; Tom 
Huston, saddle and harnessmaker ; Fort Scott Hotel, B. 
B. Dillon, prop. ; Western Hotel, Linn & Harris, props. ; 
Harry Hartman, bakery and ice cream saloon. 

WYANDOTTE CONSTITUTION. 

The Wyandotte convention completed their labors on 
the 4th day of October, 1859. 

The vote in the Territory was as follows : 

For the Constitution 10,421 

Against 5,530 

The vote in Bourbon County was : 

For the Constitution 464 

Against 256 

This was the Constitution under which the Terri- 
tory was finally admitted into the Union as a State. 

On the 8th of November an election was held for 
delegate to Congress, and for Territorial Legislature. 

In Bourbon County the vote was as follows : For 
Delegate, M. J. Parrott, Republican, 368; S. W. John- 
son, Democrat, 251. For Representative, H. Knowles, 
Republican, 359; G. Hubbard, Democrat, 259. 

On the 6th day of December an election was had 
under the Wyandotte Constitution for State officers, 

10 



146 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1859 

Representative in Congress and State Legislature, to 
take effect when the Territory should be admitted as a 
State. Charles Robinson was the Republican and 
Samuel Medary the Democratic candidate for Governor, 
Martin F. Conway, Republican, and J. A. Halderman, 
Democrat, for Congress; W. R. Griffith of Bourbon 
County was the Republican candidate for Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, The entire Republican 
State ticket was elected by about 7,900, against 5,400. 
The vote in Bourbon County on Governor — and about 
the same on the other officers — was: Robinson, 275; 
Medary, 149. J. C. Burnett, Republican, was elected 
for State Senator by 270, against Geo. A. Crawford, 
Democrat, 141. Horatio Knowles was elected Repre- 
sentative by the same vote. 

A District Judge was also elected December 6th, 
under the Wyandotte Constitution, Bourbon County 
was to be in the Fourth District with Allen, Anderson, 
Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn and Lykins, (after- 
wards Miami), Solon O. Thatcher, Republican, and 
James Christian, Democrat, were the candidates. The 
vote in this county was substantially the same as 
for Governor, and Solon O, Thatcher became our first 
District Judge, 

Judge Thatcher served until 1864 when he resigned, 
and Hon, D, P. Lowe, then of Linn County, was 
appointed to fill the vacancy, 

Epaphroditus Ransom died at his residence in Fort 
Scott, Nov. nth. B, B, Dillon died on the i6th. 

Mr, Rankin organized a Presbyterian church in Fort 
Scott, It was composed of John S. Caulkins, Mrs. A. 
McDonald and Mrs, Wm. Smith. 




NlCAK HaMU'.KA UN THK ?iIAKMATON. 




Residence, near Maruiaton, of W. R. Griffith, iMrst vState Supt. 
of Public Instruction. iS6i. 



1860] LEGISLATURE MEETS. 147 



I 



CHAPTER XXL. . 

LEGISLATURE MEETS. 

"sCPHE Territorial Legislature met at Lecompton on 
^^ the 2d of January, i860, but soon after adjourned 
to Lawrence. The town of Dayton was incorpo- 
rated by an act of this Legislature, approved 
February 18, i860. The Dayton Town Company 
consisted of George Stockmyer, D. J. Patterson, 

E. Kepley, George A. Crawford, O. Darling, C. E. 

Cranston, J. S. Dejernett and Amos Stewart. 

FORT SCOTT TOWN COMPANY INCORPORATED. 

On the 27th of February, i860, the Legislature passed 
an act incorporating the Fort Scott Town Company. 
The company had been in existence since January, 
1857, but had not up to this time been incorporated by 
law. Geo. A. Crawford, W. R. Judson, Joseph Wil- 
liams, E. S. Lowman, H. T. Wilson and Norman Eddy 
were named in the act of incorporation. 

FORT SCOTT INCORPORATED AS A CITY. 

On this same date — February 27, i860 — an act was 
passed with the following title : 



148 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 

"An act to amend an act to incorporate the town of 
Fort Scott." Section First provided: 

"That all that district of land described as follows, 
to-wit : — The southwest quarter, the west half of the 
southeast quarter, the southwest quarter of the 
northeast quarter and the southeast quarter of 
the northwest quarter of Section Thirty, Township 
Twenty-five, of Range Twenty-five, be and hereby 
is declared to be a city by the name and style of the 
City of Fort Scott." 

The act also provided that the first election should 
take place on the second Monday of March, i860. A. R. 
Allison, S. A. Williams and C. F. Drake were named 
inspectors of said election. 

FIRST CITY ELECTION — COUNTY ELECTION. 

The city election took place according to law, and 
resulted in the choice of the following ofiicers : Mayor, 
W. R. Judson; Councilmen, H. T. Wilson, C. W. Blair, 
John S. Redfield and George A. Crawford; Clerk, Wm. 
Gallaher ; Recorder, Wm. Margrave ; Marshal, Richard 
Phillips; Assessor, John S. Caulkins; Treasurer, A. 
McDonald; Street Commissioner, A. R. Allison. At 
this election, the first in the new city, 81 votes were 
cast. W. R. Judson failed to qualify as Mayor, and 
Joseph Ray was elected to that position, and became 
the first Mayor of Fort Scott. 

On the loth of September, i860, Joseph Ray, as 
Mayor, purchased the town-site of Fort Scott from the 
United States, consisting of 319 ii-ioo acres, as 
described in the act of February 27th, incorporating it 



1860] LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 149 

as a City. The patent afterwards issued by the 
Government for the land described is dated July lo, 1861. 
About the ist of April, i860, a county election was 
held at which the following named county ofiScers were 
chosen : County Commissioners, Isaac Ford, I^ester 
Ray, G. W. Miller; Probate Judge, H. Knowles; 
Assessor, J. N. Roach; Treasurer, J. Aitkin; Register 
of Deeds, W. H. Norway; Coroner, Dr. Freeman. 

THE LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 

In May, i860, the notorious "Pickles" of lyinn 
County, a general all-round thief, was arrested and 
brought to Fort Scott for trial for theft. His real name 
was Wright, but he got his nick-name of "Pickles" 
for having, in one of his expeditions, stolen a two-quart 
jar of pickles and devoured them as he rode along. 
When taken into court he plead guilty to the charge of 
horse-stealing, and was at once sentenced to the 
penitentiary, as an act of discretion, to avoid falling 
into the hands of an Osage Vigilance Committee, who 
had assembled in town, headed by old Billy Baker with 
a rope. Some of Pickles' gang came down as far as the 
Osage and endeavored to raise a rescuing party, after 
the Ben Rice fashion, but they soon abandoned the 
project. The day for that sort of thing had passed. 
The vigilance committee mentioned, or anti-horse thief 
society, as they called themselves, which had been 
formed up about Mapleton, came into town to look 
after the Pickles trial, with an eye open for a possible 
attempt at rescue. 



150 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 

Pickles fared better than did a man named Guthrie, 
who, some time before this, was found with a horse 
supposed not to belong to him, and was taken from the 
hands of a constable and hanged by this committee. 
They also got hold of Hugh Carlin, who had given the 
settlers on the Osage a good deal of trouble, and in the 
early part of July he was taken from the house of A. F. 
Monroe, without giving him time to dress, and that 
was the last of Hugh Carlin. 

In these hangings a young man named L. D. Moore 
was particularly active as a member of the committee. 
On the night of the i6th, of November he was visited 
by Jennison, with a squad of about twenty men. Upon 
arriving at Moore's house, Jennison kicked open the 
door and shot Moore before he had time to get out of 
bed. This murder was in retaliation for the hanging 
of Carlin. Although Moore, who had settled on the 
Osage in 1857, was a Pro-slavery man, politics had 
little or nothing to do with his death. It was a kind 
of an afterthought — a finishing up job of Jennison's, 
who two days before that had started out on a circuit in 
Ivinn county, first hanging old man Scott in his own 
door yard, in the north part of that county; the next 
day hanging Rus Hines near the Missouri State line, 
east of Mine creek, and winding up with the killing of 
Moore. The first two were killed on the pretext that 
they had aided in the return to the owners of runaway 
negroeSj and Moore was killed because he was, as Jen- 
nison said, "a little too conservative." 

There was, in the fall of i860, a secret society 
organized in Linn county, which they called the "Wide 



1860] LAST BORDER DIFFICULTIES. 151 

Awakes." It probably existed to a more or less extent 
all along the border. In Linn county it was especially 
strong. Nearly every Free State man in that county 
joined it. The fundamental principles of this society 
were opposition to the enforcement of the Fugitive 
Slave Law; to take measures on all occasions to nullify 
its provisions; to uphold the officers, sheriffs, etc., in 
its nullification; to forcibly prevent the return of fugi- 
tive slaves, and, when they got over into Kansas, to give 
them a bag full of grub and show them the north star. 
The society did not, however, propose to take violent 
measures in the case of men who were aiding and assist- 
ing in the execution of the law. But Jennison and a 
few with him took the general feeling as a license for 
him to do so, and the death of Scott and Hines, and 
indirectly that of Moore, was the result. 

In Bourbon County all these murders, by both 
parties, caused a decided revulsion of feeling, not only 
against the Jayhawkers, but all other species of mob 
violence, vigilance committees, protective societies, 
etc., in all forms. The point was passed where any- 
thing more of that kind would be tolerated. The 
disposition and determination of the public mind was 
to inaugarate law, to establish the forms and prece- 
dents they had been accustomed to in the old States, 
and thus bring order out of the utter chaos which had 
so far reigned from the day the Territory was organized. 
It was not hoped that this could be accomplished in a 
day, but it was, nevertheless, practically so, for these 
were the last outrages perpetrated under the guise 
of " Free State" or "Pro-slavery." 



152 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 



CHAPTER XXII. . 

THE ARTS OF PEACE. 

^rPHE idea of improving their homes, establishing 
<^^ schools amd churches, instituting county fairs, 
building railways, etc., began to take possession 
of the people. Hardly a week passed that there 
was not an enthusiastic meeting in the interest 
of some line. Among the proposed roads were 
the " Tebo and Neosho," afterwards the Missouri, 
Kansas and Texas, the "Fort Scott, Neosho and Santa 
Fe. " and the "L<ake Superior, Fort Scott and Galves- 
ton." There was some talk of the "Hudson's Bay, 
Fort Scott and Honduras," but they considered that it 
would be too nearly a parallel line and would interfere 
with the business and carrying trade of the Lake 
Superior, Fort Scott and Galveston route, so that 
project was dropped. 

The question of an Agricultural Society, Count)' 
Fair, etc., received due attention. At a meeting held 
at Marmaton on the 14th of June, at which A. G. 
Osbun was President, and W. R. Griffith, Secretary, it 
was resolved to form an association to be known as 
"The Bourbon County Agricultural Society." J. M. 
L/iggitt, A. Decker, and Judge Farwell were appointed 



1860] N. V. INDIAN LANDS. 153 

a committee to draft a constitution and report at the 
next meeting. 

At the next meeting the Bourbon County Agricul- 
tural Society was fully organized by the election of the 
following officers: President, Dr. A. G. Osbun; Vice- 
President, Richard Stadden; Secretary, Wm. R. Grif- 
fith; Treasurer, Isaac N. Mills; Executive Committee, 
H. C. Moore, Aaron Decker, Ezekiel Brown, Harrison 
Martin and S. B. Farwell. The first annual exhibition 
was to be held at the residence of Mr. Grifiith, near 
Marmaton, on the 24th and 25th of October. 

The Fair was held according to programme, and was 
better than could have been expected under the circum- 
stances. There had been no rain for a year, but they 
did the best they could. They were a little short on 
big pumpkins and long corn, but the show of live stock 
and fancy work was very good. 

POPULATION — N. Y. INDIAN I.ANDS. 

During the spring of i860. Will Gallaher took the 
census of this part of the Territory, and returned the 
following statistics: Number of inhabitants in Bour- 
bon County, 6,102; deaths during the year ending June 
I, i860, loi; mills and manufacturing establishments, 
9; farmers, 1,200. Inhabitants on the Cherokee Neu- 
tral Lands, 2,025. 

As was stated in the first part of this book, the num- 
ber of Indian claims allowed on the New York lands 
was thirty-two, equal to 10,240 acres. This tract had 
been located in the neighborhood of Barnesville. The 



154 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 

residue of the tract, comprising a million acres of the 
best land in Kansas, was turned over to the General 
Land Office as public land, subject to entry and sale, 
about the 20th of June, i860. The plats were at the 
Ivand Office in Fort Scott, and settlers commenced 
filing and pre-empting. 

In reference to those thirty-two allotments, in several 
instances the occupying Indians were driven ofi" at the 
time the Free State men in the same locality were 
driven out in 1856, and some of them never returned. 
Their lands were taken possession of by white settlers, 
who were afterwards permitted to acquire title from the 
Goverment. The Indians so driven off afterwards ap- 
plied to the Court of Claims for compensation, and 
their claims were allowed thirty years later. 

ON THE NEUTRAL LANDS. 

By this time a large number of settlers had gone onto 
the Cherokee Neutral Land, squatted on claims, built 
cabins and made other improvements. They were 
trespassers by law and by treaty stipulations, but they 
claimed the usual pioneers equity in Indian lands, and 
had the moral support, at least, of all the other settlers. 

On October 27, i860, the agent of the Cherokees, 
with a body of troops, commenced the work of driving- 
all the settlers off the Neutral Land. Orders to that end 
were issued by the Commissioners of General Land 
Office in the spring, but on a representation of the facts 
temporarily suspended. The present move was entirely 
unexpected. From 75 to 100 houses were burned, and 



1860] ARRIVAL OF TROOPS. 155 

as many families rendered destitute. These were in 
outlying settlements. When the agent reached Dry- 
wood he found the settlers united and determined, and 
concluded to give them one month's grace. There 
was not a Cherokee on the land, and, moreover, there 
was no desire on the part of the Indians that the whites 
should be disturbed. 

Delegations were sent to Washington by the business 
men of Fort Scott in the interest of the settlers on the 
Neutral Lands in Bourbon County. Colonel Wilson, 
who was familiar with the Cherokee people, went to 
Tahlequa to ascertain the feeling of the head men in 
-reference to a sale of the Neutral Land. But the 
matter was not quite ripe. In several instances the 
settlers on the Neutral Land married Cherokee women, 
thereby becoming "squawmen" — legally Cherokees — 
and entitled to a "headright," and thus securing their 
claims. Old man Hathaway, on Drywood, was one 
instance in this county. 

As has been noted, there was a very large immigra- 
tion into this county during the winter and spring of 
i860, "too numerous to mention." Among the many 
who came to Fort Scott that spring must be noted the 
arrival of John S. Miller and family on the 5th of 
March. Mr. Miller was from Pennsylvania, of the old 
"Pennsylvania Dutch" stock, and was a most excellent 
man and citizen. He was active in business circles, 
and in the affairs of the city, township and county. 

ARRIVAL OF TROOPS. 

About the ist of December, i860. General Harney 



156 HISTOR V OF BOURBON CO UNTY. [1860 

and staff arrived. The commaud came the next day. 
It numbered about i8o men. The officers were 
Brigadier General Harney, Captain Jones, A. A. G. ; 
L/ieutenant Armstrong, Aid; Lieutenant Tidball, A. A. 
Q. M. ; Swift and Brewer, Surgeons; Lieutenant Mul- 
lins, ist Dragoons; Captain Barry and Lieutenants Fry, 
Bargar, Sullivan and Perry of the artillery. 

The Jennison "circuit" detailed some pages back, 
had occasioned a great scare, and the troops came here 
for the purpose of protecting the border. The Governor 
of Missouri had also sent a brigade of Missouri militia 
to the State line under command of Gen. D. M. Frost, 
afterwards of the rebel army, and of "Camp Jackson" 
fame. One purpose of having troops at Fort Scott was 
to be present at the land sales which occurred on the 
3d of December, i860. Only fourteen 80-acre tracts 
were disposed of, at prices ranging from $1.25 to 5.50 
per acre. The attendance was very large. The lands 
were all offered by 12 o'clock, and the people went 
home satisfied their claims were safe for another year. 

THE GREAT DROUTH. 

The year i860 is known as the "dry year." The 
long drouth really commenced in the latter part 
of 1859. The year 1859 up to August or September 
was very seasonable. Crops were all made and the 
yield was immense. It was most fortunate they were 
so, for the crops of 1859 saved the people in the next 
year. Corn turned out from sixty to ninety bushels to 
the acre. Even sod corn made an immense yield. 



1860] THE GREAT DROUTH. 157 

The Fort Scott Democrat of November lo, 1859, is 
the authority for the statement that "Mr. Bnckner, 
living between Marmaton and Mill Creek, this season 
raised six hundred bushels of corn on seven acres 
of sod." Wheat and oats were good. Prairie grass 
grew to a height of from three to four feet. 

The immigrants coming in that spring and summer, 
seeing the rich overflow of a bounteous harvest, and 
the summertide of glorious verdure, hearing on every 
side the gurgling springs and brooks as they trilled in 
limpid silver down the ravines, thought that this was 
in truth the Elysian fields, the abode of the blest, and 
they felt like sending up their voices in grand diapason 
of the vox humana. If such was the natural condition, 
they thought, if vegetation existed in such luxuriance, 
if every "draw" contained a spring and every ravine 
was a creek, it certainly surpassed any country of 
which they had ever dreamed. 

But the scene was to change. 

About the ist day of September, 1859, it quit rain- 
ing. The ist of January, i860, came, but still no rain 
or "falling weather." The winter crept along, not 
very cold but very dry. Spring came, and still no rain. 
The farmer plowed as usual for crops, which were 
planted at the usual time, but no rain yet. Corn and 
other crops sprouted and came up, but no showers 
gladdened the tender shoots. The wind blew inces- 
santly from the southwest. Occasionally a cloud would 
come over about the size of a ten-acre lot, and it would 
sprinkle a little. Sometimes a bank of clouds would 
loom up in the northwest in the evening, shake their 



158 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 

heads and disappear. On the i6th of June a thunder 
shower came up, and it lightened and thundered and 
blowed and raged, and it rained — a little; so little that 
it was only an aggravation. 

Corn made a brave eflfort to grow. It was pitiful to 
look at. It held up its withered blades as if imploring 
the brazen heavens to let down rain. The poor, little 
spindling stalks grew up about three feet high, tasseled 
out, and then died. During the first part of July the 
thermometer ranged from 98 to 104 degrees in the 
shade. In the sun at midday is was 132°. By the 
middle of July the heat was simply awful. It is a 
matter of record thai on the 13th, and for weeks after 
that, the thermometer often went up to 112, 113 and 
114 degrees in the shade. There was a wind — almost 
a gale sometimes — but it came up, seemingly, with a 
spiral twist — hot, scorching, withering, like a blast 
from a seething furnace. People sought their houses 
and closed the doors and windows to keep it out. The 
foliage on the trees withered up and blew oflf. The 
prairie grass, which had grown up about three inches 
high, turned brown and was dry enough to burn. It is 
said that eggs would roast in the sand at midday — were 
actually so roasted. There is no doubt of it. The 
thermometer was 146 degrees in the sun. Thus the 
terrible drouth continued day after day, week after 
week, month after month. 

Springs, wells, water everywhere, gave out. The 
farmer sought the lowest "draw" on his place and dug 
down for water, sometimes with partial success. The 
creeks and larger streams were perfectly dry except in 



18601 THE GREAT DROUTH. 159 

the large "holes," which, ordinarily from ten to fifteen 
feet in depth, were reduced to muddy, stagnant puddles. 
There would often be a stretch of a mile or more be- 
tween these pools in which the bottom of the river was 
dry and dusty, and the dry leaves, lately fallen from 
the trees, would rustle and swirl in the little whirl- 
winds as they swept up and down the river bed. 

In the latter part of September or first part of October 
the drouth was partially broken. It rained a little. 
The rains were not general or heavy, but it rained 
enough to freshen up the stagnant pools, and form 
many small ones. Stock water was not so scarce, and 
once more the cow and yoke of steers could have 
enough to drink. 

The drouth had lasted for more than a year. Dates 
of its beginning and ending vary with localities, but 
it may be said, in general, that there were from 
twelve to fourteen calendar months during which time 
the total rainfall did not exceed one inch. 

Of course all crops were practically a failure. In 
fields around the base of the mounds, which in ordinary 
years are wet and springy, and in some places in the 
low bottom lands some corn was raised, in some 
instances as much as five bushels to the acre, of little 
wormy-ended nubbins. Sorghum sugar cane did better 
than any other crop. In fact, it made a fair yield 
where planted, and all that fall the creak of the cane 
mills could be heard in neighborhoods where they had 
been fortunate enough to have planted cane. 

In the year before, a good crop of cane had been 
raised on a small patch of ground on the farm of Dr. 



160 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1860 

A. G. Osbim. In harvesting the cane that fall the 
seed had rattled out over the ground and in the spring 
it came up quite a thick "volunteer" crop. It grew 
that season about four or five feet high, being so thick 
on the ground, and was cut and put up like hay, and 
fed to the horses and other stock that winter. 

Unfortunately but few farmers in this county had 
sorghum seed, and but little was planted. In Linn 
County this crop was quite general and very good. The 
farmers there made any amount of molasses, but some 
had nothing to "put it on." Children were often seen 
eating sorghum molasses ofif a chip instead of their 
much loved crust of corn bread. 

This general failure of crops of course caused much 
suffering, especially as winter approached and the store 
of old corn in the country became more nearly ex- 
hausted. Many were compelled to leave the country 
temporarily, to seek subsistence. In such cases where 
the family had a claim it was the tacit understanding 
that their claims should be protected until their return 
the next year. 

Efforts were begun that fall in the direction of secur- 
ing aid. Delegations were sent East to represent the 
facts and solicit help. Considerable aid was received 
in this county, but not as much as in that part of the 
country contiguous to the Missouri river, up which all 
freights had to come at that day. From here it was a 
round trip of two hundred miles to Wyandotte. 

There were a few intermittent rains and snows during 
that fall and winter, but the flood gates were not opened 
and the streams flushed until early in April, 1861. 



1861] STATE GOVERNMENT. 161 



CHAPTBJt XXIIL 

KANSAS ADMITTED. 

^I^ANSAS was admitted as a State on the 29th day 
A^ of January, 1861. It came to the fireside of the 
Union only to witness the frowning and wayward 
sisters of the South departing, one by one, across 
\ the threshold, out into the darkness — out into the 
coming storm. But Kansas came not in the 
innocence of childhood, nor like "a fair young girl, 
with light and delicate limbs and waving tresses," but 
"like a bearded man ; armed to the teeth, one mailed 
hand grasping the broad shield and one the sword ; its 
brow, glorious though it be, is scarred with tokens 
of old wars." On its shield was written. Ad Astra per 
Aspera ; on its sword, Excalibur Expurgatorius. 

The Territorial probation was at an end. The 
untried and unexampled task set before it had been 
accomplished, not as designed by the spirit of the past 
ages, but as marked out by the advancing rays of the 
Nineteenth Century. 

STATE GOVERNMENT. 

The Territorial Legislature adjourned on the 2nd 
day of February, to meet no more. 
11 



162 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

Governor Charles Robinson was sworn into office on 
the 9th day of February, as the first Governor of the 
State of Kansas. He convened the State Legislature, 
elected under the Wyandotte Constitution, on the 26tli 
day of March. The members of that Legislature from 
Bourbon County were : J. C. Burnett, of Mapleton, 
Senator. Horatio Knowles, of Marmaton, S. B. Ma- 
hurin, of Scott, and J. T. Neal, of Osage, were the 
Representatives. James H. Lane and S. C. Pomeroy 
were elected United States Senators on the 4tli day 
of April. 

CITY AFFAIRS. 

The population of the City of Fort Scott was now 
about 500. At the regular spring election for muni- 
cipal officers the result was as follows : — Mayor, Joseph 
Ray ; Councilmen, H. T. Wilson, J. S. Redfield, A. 
McDonald and Chas. W. Blair ; Clerk, William Galla- 
her ; Treasurer, C. W. Goodlander ; Recorder, J. S. 
Miller ; Assessor, A. R. Allison ; Marshal, R. L. Philips; 
Street Commissioner, J. G. Stuart. 

The vote was 83, which indicated about the popula- 
tion of 500, as stated. 

IMPENDING CRISIS. 

The Southern States had now nearly all seceded and 
their Provisional Government was in full operation at 
Montgomery, Alabama. 

Still, the people of Bourbon County, in common with 
the entire North, laid the flattering unction to their 



1861] IMPENDING CRISIS. 163 

souls that in some way, or by some means, the impend- 
ing war might yet be averted. The Governor of the 
State had appointed four commissioners to the Peace 
Convention, two of whom had voted for peace and 
compromise. Meetings were held in various parts of 
this county, all of which expressed sentiments of con- 
servatism, and especially a spirit of conciliation towards 
the people of the neighboring State of Missouri living 
along our border. The leading Democratic citizens of 
Fort Scott united with the Republicans in a letter to 
James H. Lane, inviting him to come down and make a 
speech. He accepted, and came about the 15th of 
March, and spoke at a public meeting that day. 

The attendance at the meeting was very large, 
and included many citizens of the adjoining portion of 
Missouri. Lane advocated the cultivation of amicable 
relations between the people of the two States. He 
advised the belligerent portion of the Kansas people to 
"get a bag of meal under the bed, a ham in the cellar, 
and a dress for the baby," before engaging in a war 
which would be certain to desolate and impoverish the 
whole country. 

A few days afterwards — about the 20th — a large and 
enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Linn and 
Bourbon Counties, Kansas, and Vernon County, Mis- 
souri, was held at Barnesville. It was presided over by 
H. G. Moore, Sheriff of Bourbon County. Byron P. 
Ayres, of Linn County, was secretary. James H. 
Lane, W. L. Henderson, A. B. Massey, J. T. Neal, 
Ben Rice, George A. Crawford, Chas. W. Blair, C. W. 
McDaniel, Geo. A. Reynolds, and A. Burton were 



164 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

appointed a committee on resolutions. The resolutions 
were conservative throughout. General Lane after- 
wards addressed the meeting in about the same tenor as 
in his speech at Fort Scott. 

The circumstances attending this meeting, — the con- 
gregation of a mass of men who had been so long in a 
whirling eddy of sectional discord, — the appointment 
on working committees of men who had heretofore 
entertained such widely differing opinions, — is worthy 
of historical note. 

The old order of things had passed away. The 
public mind was adjusting itself on new lines ; the 
political atmosphere was clearing up — clear as a bell, 
and the bell had but one tone. 

WAR. 

On the I2th of April, 1861, was fired the first gun ot 
the civil war. By a singular coincidence the deed was 
performed by an old fellow with whose name we have 
become quite familiar. It was Ruffian. He was 
probably not the "Ruffian" of our acquaintance, but 
his act in pulling the lanyard over that old smooth- 
bore Napoleon gun, which fired the first shot against 
Fort Sumpter, was the climax of the political doctrine 
that had been taught, not only to our Border Ruffian, 
but to the entire people of the South. The firing of 
that gun was the natural and logical sequence and 
culmination of that spirit — that political essence — 
which the people of Kansas had contended against for 
four long years, and which the Government, and the 



1861] IVA/e FEELING. 165 

people of all the other states were to now take up on an 
appeal, and enter into a gigantic trial of another four 
year's duration. 

The artillery "heard around the world" on that 
April day opened the greatest conflict the world has 
ever seen. It was the grandest, most momentous 
sound ever heard on earth. Artillery is God's own 
music. The reverberating thunder of artillery, the 
steady tread of contending hosts — fierce, bloody war — 
these are God's instruments for the advancement and 
civilization of the human race, and have been since the 
days of Joshua. 

Every war in every nation, — every war between 
nations, — cuts through the film of ignorance on the 
eyes of the people, and advances the banner of regener- 
ation and disenthralment. The real camp followers 
are freedom, tolerance, invention, science. War breaks 
the fetters of the serf and the slave ; it unyokes the 
woman from the plow team ; it casts off the wooden 
sabots of the listeners to the Angelus. 

THE WAR FEELING IN BOURBON COUNTY. 

After the war had actually commenced, — after the 
first "overt act," as we called it, the conservatism, the 
doubts, the hesitation, of our people were laid aside, 
together with their politics. The Democrat^ the only 
newspaper in the county, came out early and declared 
that it abandoned all party affiliations and announced 
itself "for the constitution and the union, and a 
supporter of the new Administration so long as it shall 



166 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

labor in the direction of their perpetuity." That was 
the universal sentiment. If war must come the feeling 
was not only to prepare for it but to prosecute it to the 
end. Our people realized, also, more nearly than 
those of other sections of the North the full import 
of what was to come. The "Ninety Day" theory 
of Secretary Seward met with no believers. The 
opinion was, also, often expressed, that the war would 
result in the extinction of human slavery on this 
continent. 

On Thursday night, April 24th, there was a Union 
demonstration, the most enthusiastic yet held in the 
town. The demonstration was entirely impromptu — 
nine-tenths of those who took part in it being aroused 
from their slumbers at midnight. As each one joined 
the procession he was greeted with three cheers, 
followed by three times three for the Union. "The 
Red, White and Blue," "Star Spangled Banner," 
"Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," and other 
patriotic airs were sung amid the wildest applause. 
All party feeling was buried beneath the glorious plat- 
form of National Union. It was a scene worthy of our 
town, and one long to be remembered with feelings of 
deep emotion by every true and loyal citizen. 

At a meeting held in the office of C. W. Blair, Esq., 
Wednesday evening following, two volunteer com- 
panies were organized and the following officers elected; 
First company — Captain, C. W. Blair; First Lieutenant, 
A, R. Allison; Second Lieutenant, R. L. Phillips; 
Third Lieutenant, Chas. Bull ; Ensign, Wm. R. Judsou. 
Second company — Captain, A. McDonald; First Lieu- 



1861] IVAI^ FEEL/JVC. 167 

tenant, Charles Dimon; Second Lieutenant, William 
Gallaher; Third Lieutenant, A, F, Bicking; Ensign, 
O. S. Dillon. The oflScers were elected by the com- 
bined vote of both companies, leaving each man to 
decide afterwards with which company he would con- 
nect himself. 

There were two companies formed in Drywood town- 
ship about this same time, under command of Captains 
Henry CofFman and H. J. Boring, and one company on 
the head of Lightning Creek officered by John T. Mc- 
Whirt, Roswell Seeley, John Tully, John F. Gates 
and Sam McWhirt. 

The first two Fort Scott companies were finally con- 
solidated, and called themselves the "Frontier Guard. " 
The boys started for Lawrence to be mustered into 
the service, x^t Lawrence Captain Blair was promoted 
to Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2d Kansas, which was to 
be the regiment of the Fort Scott company. After a 
few days rest at Lawrence, the regiment left for Kansas 
City for muster-in. When they got to Wyandotte, 
about June ist, most of the Fort Scott boys concluded 
they had seen enough service and returned home. 
The larger part of them, however, went into the army 
afterwards. "Frontier Guard No. 2" was raised soon 
afterwards by W. T. Campbell, and a company was 
raised on Mill Creek by Captain Hall. 

All this was the usual preliminary business that 
occurred at that time all over the country, with the 
object of not only testing who really wanted to go to 
war, but who were prepared at short notice to leave 
home for an indefinite time. 



168 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

The Fourth of July had now come, and was quite a 
gala day in Fort Scott. It had been arranged that Fort 
Scott Guards, Nos. i and 2, should have a parade and 
drill, and several companies from the surrounding 
country were invited to join them. The company from 
Dry wood (cavalry,) Capt, Boring, and Mill Creek com- 
pany, (infantry,) Capt. Hall, responded to the invitation. 

At 10 a. m. the Guards formed at their respective 
armories, and after a little marching and counter- 
marching, went out to meet and escort in Captain 
Boring's company. The field music was excellent. 
The Drywood boys were received with hearty cheers 
and escorted into town, where the Mill Creek boys 
were met and received with like cordiality. After din- 
ner the cavalry was drilled by Captain John Hamilton, 
and the infantry had a battalion drill under E. A. 
Smith. At five o'clock the battalion was dismissed, 
and all parties returned to their homes, mutually 
pleased with the Fourth of July and each other. 

On the 5th day of July the battle of Carthage 
was fought. This occasioned great alarm and appre- 
hension. We had a war sure enough and it was 
getting uncomfortably close. 

Shortly after the Carthage affair General Lyon 
authorized Captains W. T. Campbell and W. C. 
Ransom to raise two companies of one hundred men 
each, to serve as Home Guards. Then two other com- 
panies were raised by Captains Z. Gower and Lewis R. 
Jewell, and these four companies were the origin and 
foundation of the Sixth Kansas Cavalry. 



1861] BATTLE OF DRYWOOD. 169 



CHAPTER^XIV. 

BATTLE OF DRYWOOD. 

^'TPHE proximity of war in Missouri led J. H. Lane, 
^^ who was posing as Brigadier General of Volunteers, 
in command of Kansas troops, to "fortify" Fort 
Lincoln, on the Osage River. The work done 
there, in a military or common sense view, was 
simply idiotic. He went down on the very 
lowest bottom land of the river, where he threw up an 
earth-work about the size of a calf-pen and then 
blazoned it forth as a great military fortification. 

In the latter part of August a considerable force was 
being concentrated at Fort Scott. Old Jim Mont- 
gomery had of course, by this time, gotten a regiment 
together, and five companies of the Third Kansas 
under him arrived on the 20th of August. Other 
Kansas troops arrived from time to time until the 
aggregate force was about two thousand men. Fort 
Scott was now headquarters f0r General Lane's brigade. 

The rebel Generals, Price and Raines, were operating 
in Western Missouri with several thousand men, and 
contemplated an attack on Southeastern Kansas. On 
the ist of September General Raines with his division 
approached within twelve miles of Fort Scott, on the 



170 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

southeast, and a scouting party came within two miles 
of town and captured a corral full of mules, and drove 
in Lane's pickets. A force of 500 cavalry with one 12 
pound howitzer, was sent out the next day to reconnoitre. 
They ran into the rebel pickets and drove them across 
Drywood creek, where '.Dey were reinforced, and quite 
a rattling good skirmish was fought, until the ammu- 
nition of the Union forces gave out, when they fell 
back in good order on Fort Scott. The ofi&cial reports 
give the Union loss in this action as five killed and 
twelve wounded. The rebel loss was about the same. 
In the meantime the infantry force occupied the 
heights east and southeast of town. These troops were 
reinforced by an impromptu company, organized that 
morning, of such men as McDonald, Drake and the 
other citizens who were not already in line on the hill. 
This company was sworn into the service, drew arms 
and ammunition, and marched to the front in two rows 
like regulars. They still belong to the army. They 
were never mustered out. Some of them have their 
arms yet. Drake says his old musket is down in the 
cellar now, with the same load in it he put in on that 
day. Some of these days a little Lieutenant may come 
along and order them out on advance picket with three 
days' cooked rations, or he may order them to the 
Soldier's Home. They never drew pay. They are 
presumably entitled to back pay and bounty up to date. 
They are certainly all entitled to pensions by reason of 
rheumatism, superinduced by exposure while in line of 
duty. But they did their full duty that day, and if there 
had been a fight would have held on as long as anybody. 



1861] THE SIXTH KANSAS. 171 

The entire force waited on the crest of the hill until 
night for the expected attack of General Raines. About 
dark a raging thunder storm — which follows after all 
great battles — came up, and the boys, concluding that 
it would affect the rebels just as it did them, returned to 
town and sought shelter in camp. 

That night General Lane ordered the entire force to 
fall back on Fort Lincoln, twelve miles north, on the 
Osage, leaving Fort Scott to the mercy of anybody 
that might come along. A scouting party of fifty men 
could have gutted and burned the town without oppo- 
sition. Lane displayed here his usual cowardice when 
confronted by real danger. It is said that he would 
have burned the town himself — had actually ordered 
the torch applied — but he was prevailed on by the 
citizens to wait at least until the rebel force had crossed 
the State line. Of course, there was great commotion 
in town. The non-combatants, women and children — 
excepting Mrs. Wm. Smith, Mrs. H. T. Wilson, Mrs. 
John S. Miller and one or two others, w^ho decided to 
wait awhile, — were loaded into wagons and driven out 
west toward Marmaton. The torch was ready to be 
applied to every building in town on the first appearance 
of the rebel troops on the summit of the eastern hills. 
But they did not appear. General Raines was at that 
moment mrking a forced march on Lexington, Mis- 
souri, by n 1 order that day received from General 
Price, and Fort Scott thus escaped utter annihilation. 

THE SIXTH KANSAS. 

The Sixth Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort 



172 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

Scott on the 9th of September, 1861. A large part of 
this regiment was Bourbon County men. W. R. Judson 
was Colonel. The first Lieutenant-Colonel was Lewis 
R. Jewell, who was killed at the battle of Cane Hill, 
Ark., November 28, 1862. W. T. Campbell was then 
promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and served through 
the war. Wyllys C. Ransom was Major. C. O. Judson 
was Adjutant until March, 1862. Isaac Stadden was 
then Adjutant until August, 1862. The Quarter- 
masters were successively Geo. J. Clark, S. B. Gordon, 
Charles W. Jewell and Levi Bronson. Dr. John S. 
Redfield was surgeon until February 21, 1865, when 
he was mustered out and returned home. Capt. John 
Rogers, Captain of Company K, was killed by bush- 
whackers near the south line of this county on the 2nd 
of June, 1864. John G. Harris, lieutenant of Company 
K, was badly wounded at Cane Hill, Ark., by a ball 
passing clear through his neck. He recovered, and 
after the war was Sheriff of Bourbon County. The 
other line officers of the Sixth Kansas who lived in 
this county have been mentioned. 

Jewell County in this State was named in honor 
of Colonel Lewis R. Jewell, when that County was 
organized in 1867, at the instance of Samuel A. 
Manlove, who was that year a member of the Legisla- 
ture from Fort Scott. 

Fort Scott was again established as a military post 
and a depot of supplies. From two thousand to ten 
thousand troops were making transitory stops here, 
arriving and departing and shifting about as the 
necessities of the case seemed to require. Long wagon 



1861] SOME MORE POLITICS. 173 

trains of Government supplies, — hardtack, bacon, 
beans, rice, coffee and sugar, of the Commissar}^ depart- 
ment, and blue uniforms, boots and shoes, blankets, 
etc., of the Quartermaster department were constantly 
coming and going, and the grand chorus of a thousand 
voices from the mule corral was the first thing heard in 
the morning and the last at night. 

SOME MORE POLITICS. 

In October, 1861, the Republican State Committee 
was petitioned by a large number of voters to nomi- 
nate a State ticket, and a special and emphatic request 
was made in the petition that a patriotic and energetic 
man be named for Governor on a war platform. They 
claimed that Governor Charles Robinson was impotent 
and ineflScient, and that by the terms of the State 
Constitution his term of office expired January i, 1862, 
notwithstanding the enactment of the Legislature 
extending the term. The committee in response to 
these petitioners nominated a full State ticket with 
George A. Crawford, of Bourbon County, for Governor. 
There was no other ticket in the field for State officers. 
The location of the State Capital was to be voted 
on, and members of the Legislature were to be elected. 
The election was held on the 5th of November. Mr. 
Crawford and his ticket received more than one-half as 
many votes as the total vote polled on the State 
Capital question, but the State Board of Canvassers 
refused to canvass the vote. Mr. Crawford took the 
case to the Supreme Court, and it is the first case 



174 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1861 

reported in the First Kansas reports. It is held by the 
Court that the act of the Legislature of May 22, 1861, 
provided for the election of Governor at the general 
election of 1862, and that the election of the Crawford 
ticket was null and void. 

Topeka received the majority of the vote cast for 
State Capital. 

Eli G. Jewell and Geo. A. Reynolds were elected to 
the Legislature from Bourbon County. 

On the 2nd of December, 1861, General J. W. 
Denver was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, and placed 
in command of the Kansas troops. 




1862] VARIOUS THINGS. 176 



CHAPTER XXV. 



VARIOUS THINGS. 



} 



N the Spring of 1862, a considerable force was con- 
^ centrated at Fort Scott, consisting of the ist and 
6th Kansas, the 9th, 12th and 13th Wisconsin, the 
2nd Ohio Cavalry and Captain Rabb's 2nd Indiana 
\ Battery. The 5th Kansas Cavalry, which had been 
camped at Barnesville all winter was placed under 
command of Col. Powell Clayton. In the early spring 
this regiment was marched through Fort Scott to Dry- 
wood. It remained there a few days, when Clayton got 
permission to take the regiment out of this department, 
and he hustled it off down on the lower Mississippi. 
Sam Walker, who has been mentioned several times 
during the border troubles was Major of this regiment. 
James Montgomery was Colonel of the 3d Kansas, and 
afterwards he was transferred to the command of a 
colored regiment in South Carolina, where he probably 
renewed his acquaintance with Buford and the Ham- 
iltons, or at least with their kinfolks. 

Speaking of the Hamiltons, nothing reliable is known 
of that particular group, after the war began. They all 
probably went into the rebel army. It is said that in 
the fall of 1861, Captain Bain, with a portion of the 



176 HISTOR Y OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862 

6th Kansas, captured several persons over in Missouri, 
and on his way up he camped one night about two 
miles south of Arcadia. The next morning, after they 
had broken camp and started on the march, Bain took 
a detail of men, and, selecting out seven of the pris- 
oners, took them off to one side of the road and killed 
them. Bain gave it out that they were with the Ham- 
ilton gang at the Marais des Cygnes murder. That was 
possibly true, but it was more probable that they were 
Bain's personal enemies 

The Kansas troops had now been in the service sev- 
eral months, and they began to think they were old 
veterans. Most of them had quit writing letters to 
their folks more than twice a week, and they had all 
learned the best manner of cooking beans, and pre- 
paring hard-tack so that it would seem like something 
else. Their ideas of war were somewhat changed 
before they got through with it. 

On the loth of May, 1862, a small newspaper called 
the Fort Scott Bulletin was established. 

In the spring of 1862 the people of Fort Scott let the 
city election go by default, and it was not until in 
August that they discovered they had missed a chance 
to vote. Then the council ordered an election to be 
held on the 25th. J. S. Miller was elected Mayor, H. 
T. Wilson, P. P. Elder, William Smith and C. F. Drake, 
Councilmen; J. E. Dillon, clerk: J. F. White, Marshal; 
C. W. Goodlander, Treasurer; A. R. Allison, Assessor, 
and J. G. Stuart, Street Commissioner. 

On the ist of June Lieutenant Colonel Lewis R. 



18621 VARIOUS THINGS. 177 

Jewell was placed in command of the Post of Fort 
Scott. 

About July, 1862, Rube Forbes, whom we have 
already had occasion to mention, and a man named 
Troy Dye robbed the store of E. S. Scott, at Xenia. 
This caused a great commotion among the settlers 
of that neighborhood, and they raised a posse, headed 
by Captain Vansycle, late of Co. "I," Sixth Kansas, 
and Lieutenant Ford of the same company. They got 
after the thieves in close chase. Dye got away but 
they run Forbes into a very dense brush patch about 
four miles south of Mapleton, where he was sur- 
rounded. The brush was so thick they could not see 
Rube but they charged in as far as they could and fired. 
Rube instantly returned the fire and Captain Vansycle 
fell dead. He fired again and Lieutenant Ford fell 
badly wounded. The lieutenant was at once taken up 
by Charles Love, J. R. Anderson and others, and 
carried on a coat to a house about half a mile distant, 
and was soon afterward taken to his home near Union- 
town where he died. At the third fire by Rube, E. C. 
Buck was badly wounded in the neck, and came 
near dying. About that time a company of soldiers 
arrived, who fired a volley into the brush where Rube 
was and his dead body was dragged out. 

On the 15th of July, 1862, the first number of the 
Bourbon County Monitor was issued at Marmaton by 
David B. Emmert. 

The Second Kansas Battery was raised in Bourbon 
County by C. W. Blair, early in the summer. 
The officers were C. W. Blair, Captain ; E. A. Smith, 

12 



178 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1862 

D. C. Knowles, A, G. Clark, and A.Wilson, Lieutenants. 
This was known through the war as "Blair's Battery." 

FALL ELECTIONS. 

The general election in the State was held on the 4th 
of November, 1862. Thomas Carney, Republican, of 
Leavenworth, was elected Governor. He received 
exactly 10,000 votes. The opposition candidate was 
W. R. Wagstaff, of Paola. His vote was 5,463. 

The vote in Bourbon County for Governor was 413 
to 86. This county was the Fourteenth Senatorial 
District. Isaac Ford was elected Senator by 431 votes, 
against 33 votes for E. Williams. There were four 
Representative Districts in this county, the 50th, 51st, 
52nd and 53rd. In the 50th D. B. Jackman received 
41 votes, L. D. Clevenger, 26. In the 51st J. Hawkins, 
62 ; W. T. Jones, 37. In the 52nd, D. R. Cobb received 
the entire vote, 97. In the 53rd, C. F. Drake received 
the entire vote, 205. 



t ' ^^^ ' l 




City Hall and Court House, 1865. 



]863] COUNTY SEAT RETURNED. 179 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

COUNTY SEAT RETURNED TO FORT SCOTT. 

T THIS session of the Legislature C. F. Drake 
introduced and had passed a general county seat 
law, providing for elections for county seats on 
petition to the County Court, etc. On the passage 
of that law the City Council of the City of Fort 
Scott, of which Mr. Drake was also a member, 
proposed to the County Court that the city would build 
a City Hall and in the event that the people, at the 
proposed election, voted to re-locate the county seat at 
Fort Scott the use of the City Hall would be given to 
the county for county purposes. The proposition was 
accepted by the Board of County Commissioners, and a 
special election for county seat was held on the nth 
day of May, 1863. The result of the election was as 
follows : Fort Scott received 700 votes ; Centerville, on 
Mill Creek, 279 votes; Mapleton, 14 votes; Fort Lincoln, 
I vote, and at a meeting of the Board of County Com- 
missioners on the 1 6th of May 1863, ^^ ^^^^ °^^ ^^^^ 
at Marmaton, Fort Scott was by proclamation declared 
the county seat. At this meeting there were present 
T. W. Tallman, Isaac Ford and E. A. Toles, Commis- 
missioners and David R. Cobb, County Clerk. 



180 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1863 

The city council then took steps for the erection of 
the City Hall. The location decided on was the 
South-east corner of Locust and Jones streets, now 
Second Street and National Avenue. The building 
was to be of stone, two stories high. The contract was 
let to Goodlander & Allison for the sum of $3,900. It 
was completed that fall, except the railing around the 
spiral stairway, which was never finished. Good- 
lander made one for it but it didn't fit, and he threw it 
under the work bench, then he convinced the council 
that railings were out of style, anyhow. 

At a meeting of the City Council held on December 
14, 1863, it was on motion, ordered "That the City 
Marshal notify the county officers that the City Hall 
was in readiness, and request them to occupy the same." 

The county officers then moved in. The County 
Clerk, Treasurer and Register of Deeds occupied the 
lower story. The District Court was held in the upper 
story. And that was the Bourbon County court house 
for nearly thirty years. When court was not in session 
the upper story was subject to be used for miscellaneous 
purposes. Religious services were held there nearly 
every Sunday by some Denomination which had, as yet, 
no home of their own. Political meetings and con- 
ventions caucused and pulled wires, and long-haired 
itinerant cranks would occasionally loosen the plaster- 
ing in expounding their wonderful theories. During 
the 60' s amateur dramatic clubs often "played" under 
the management of John R. Morley, Geo. Clark and 
Ken Williams, in a repertoire from "Black-eyed 
Susan" to "Hamlet." A "Masquerade Ball" was 



1863] COUNTY SEAT RETURNED. \%\ 

given at least once a year. The "Masques" were 
varied, most life-like, and always thoroughly original. 

But few incidents of local interest transpired during 
the year 1863. There was not much done in the way 
of improvement either in the town or county. The 
erection of the woollen factory by Geo. A. Crawford 
was the most important. Fort Scott being a military 
post, a telegraph line was constructed from Fort Leav- 
enworth, and the people had means of communication 
with the outside world, without having to depend on 
the often delayed trips of the old "jerky" stage, which 
the boys said was a "tri-weekly, — it went out one week 
and tried to get back the next." Sometimes it didn't 
do it. The stage fare between Kansas City and Fort 
Scott was "ten dollars and carry a rail." Sometimes, 
when the roads were real good, a man passenger would 
not have to walk and carry a rail more than a third 
of the time. When they were very bad he walked all 
the way, carried his rail, and paid his ten dollars just 
the same. So. But then he had the privilege of being 
whirled into town and landed at the Wilder House 
with a grand flourish. That was worth something. 

A good portion of the men of Bourbon County, in 
common with those of the balance of the State, were 
in the army. The total number of Kansas troops in 
the field by the middle of this year was 9,600. A large 
number went in after that date. Nearly every man 
living in Kansas during the war was in the service in 
some shape. If not in the volunteer service he was in 
the home guards or State militia. 

On the 4th of July, 1863, E. A. Smith was pro- 



182 HISTORY OF BOURBOhl COUNTY. [1863 

moted to Captain of the 2nd Kansas, or Blair's Battery, 
and Blair was assigned to the 14th Regiment of Kansas 
Volunteers as Colonel. He was soon after promoted to 
Brigadier General, and ordered to Fort Scott as com- 
mandant of the post. He remained in command of 
this post until April 28th, 1865, when he was succeeded 
by Gen. U. B. Pearsall, who remained in command 
until the close of the war. 

ELECTIONS. 

The general election in the State was held on the 3rd 
of November. District Attorneys, Legislators, and a 
part of the county officers were to be chosen. Samuel 
A. Riggs was elected District Attorney for the Fourth 
Judicial District, consisting of the counties of Allen, 
Anderson, Bourbon, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Linn 
and Miami. The Representatives for Bourbon County 
were Wm. Stone, R. P. Stevens, D. R. Cobb and J. G. 
Miller. County Treasurer, James Aitkin; Sheriff, H. 
G. Moore; Probate Judge, Wm. Rose; Register of 
Deeds, E. B. Norcross. The new County Board was 
organized on the next January: T. W. Tallman, E. A. 
Toles and J. F. Holt, Commissioners, and J. S. Em- 
mert, County Clerk. 




'%.. 



Fort Blair, Built iu the Street at the Corner of Scott Avenue and 
First vStreet iu the Spring of 1864. 



1864] POLITICAL FEELING. 183 



CHAPTER XXVIL 

FORTIFICATIONS. 

N the early part of 1864 several extensive fortifica- 
) tions were commenced, and finished that spring. 
These were quite heavy, well constructed earth- 
works. "Fort Henning" was located on Second 
^ street, between National Avenue and Judson street. 
"Fort Blair" was on First street between Main 
street and Scott Avenue, and contained the block house 
now standing across from the post oflfice. ' 'Fort Insley' ' 
was on the extreme point northeast of the Plaza. There 
were some barracks and fortifications commenced on the 
hill southeast of town, and some rifle pits on what we 
now call Tower Hill. The old Government Hospital 
building was used for a hospital, and the old guard 
house was again utilized for the original purpose. 

Dr. Van Duyn was the surgeon in charge of hospitals 
at this post during 1864. 

POLITICAL FEELING. 

There was but little partisan political feeling in this 
County at that time. Public sentiment may have 
found vent, to some extent, in the action of the City 
Council at a meeting held January 2, at which Coun- 



184 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

cilmen Dimon, White and Drake caused the following 
order to be spread upon the minutes : 

^''Ordered: That the Street Commissioner cause 
a sidewalk to be built from the corner of Wall Street, 
etc., and provided., that said walks be of two planks 
one foot wide, 12 inches apart, 2j/ inches thick, 
slightly elevated, and pinned to terra firma like h — 1. " 

The old party organizations were kept up, but the 
sentiments of all were simply for the Union and 
for the suppression of the rebellion. 

At a large Democratic convention held May 23rd, 
1864, i^ t^^ City Hall, for the purpose of electing 
a delegate to the State Democratic Convention to 
be held at Topeka, the following resolution, among 
others, was passed : 

''''Resolved^ That we will vote for no man for Presi- 
dent or Vice-President who is not pledged to devote all 
his powers to the suppression of the rebellion, and 
maintain and defend the Constitution of the Union 
from all aggression from secession traitors of the South 
and conspirators of the North." 

The meeting was presided over by Robert Blackett. 
O. DiefFenbaugh was secretary. Charles Bull was 
chosen delegate to the State Convention. 

John E. Himoe, of Mapleton, brother of Dr. S. O. 
Himoe, while on a trip up the Missouri river, about 
April I, 1864, was taken down with the smallpox. He 
was landed at Boonville with a nurse. While there he 
became delirious and one night, escaping from the 
house in that condition, he tried to break in through 
the window of a neighboring house, and the man inside 




o 

w 
o 



1864] RAIDS ON DRY WOOD. 185 

naturally took him for a burglar and shot him dead. 
Mr. Himoe was at that time County Surveyor of 
this county. 

RAIDS ON DRYWOOD. 

About the 20th of May, 1864, Henry Taylor, a noted 
guerrilla of Vernon County, Mo., made a raid in the 
Drywood valley. He had a large company with him, 
some say as many as eighty men. He entered Bourbon 
County on the south, and first went to the house of 
William Custard, about ten o'clock at night. Custard 
had been in bed, but by some means he got warning of 
their approach, and he and his brother, Rufus, made 
their escape, just in the nick of time. Taylor run into 
the house and, in the search, he felt in the warm bed, 
which Custard had just left. 

Taylor then robbed several families and committed 
other depredations. Finally, on his return out of the 
county he went to the house of Louis L. Ury, at the 
place where Garland is now, and surrounded it. There 
were in the house, Mr. Ury and his wife, his son Joe 
Ury, and the young children. Newt and the two girls, 
now Mrs. Homer Pond and Mrs. John Withers, and a 
Mr. T. Cartmell. Taylor had with him Mike Kelley, 
John Gwynn and several other prisoners that he had 
picked up, and intended to get Mr. Ury and his son 
Joe. After capturing the men folks he moved Newt 
and the two girls out into the corner of the yard 
preparatory to burning the house. Just then George 
Pond, James Pitts and Fred Carpenter, a scouting party 
from the 3d Wisconsin Cavalry, run onto them and 



186 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

commenced firing, and Joe Ury, as soon as he heard 
the guns, picked up a stick of wood and knocked 
Taylor down. When Taylor got up, he called out 
"shoot the prisoners," and made for his horse. Some 
of the others of the gang fired at the prisoners, two 
balls striking Mr. Louis Ury, who was standing in his 
door. Then the entire party lit out for Missouri, 
leaving all the prisoners. Mr. Ury's wounds were 
found to be very serious. His leg had to be amputated 
and he lingered until the 2nd of July, when he died. 

The summer before this occurred, this same Taylor 
captured a man by the name of Tom Whitesides from 
the house of Mrs. Beal's, east of Fort Scott, and took 
him to near the " Line House" and killed him, firing 
twelve shots into him. After the war Taylor was 
elected sheriff of Vernon county. 

About June \, 1864, a dozen or more bushwhackers 
made a raid into the county, up on the head of Pawnee 
Creek, and captured Rev. Mr. Harryman, Mr. Potter, 
and two or three colored people, and robbed and burned 
Mr. Harryman' s house. The robbers took alarm at the 
approach of some parties and hastily left without their 
prisoners. 

RAILROADS — POLITICS. 

On the ist day of June, 1864, ^ railroad convention 
in the interest of the Border Tier railway was held at 
Paola. The delegates from Bourbon County were Geo. 
A. Crav/ford, Geo. Dimon, H. T. Wilson, Isaac Stad- 
den. Dr. Freeman and A. Danford. D. P. Lowe and J. 
D. Snoddy were among those from Linn County. 



1864] THE PRICE RAID. 187 

This was the first concerted effort in the direction of 
building railroads in this section of the State. Speeches 
were made and various committees appointed. One 
committee was appointed to memorialize Congress to 
grant lands to a border road, setting forth in their me- 
morial the vast importance of such a road in a military 
point of view. The people had sat down to an indefi- 
nite siege of war. The end seemed far off in the dim 
future, and they had come to accept it as almost the 
natural condition. 

President Lincoln was nominated for re-election. An 
immense ratification meeting was held on the 20th day 
of June, 1864, at Fort Scott. T. T. Insley was Presi- 
dent, and J. R. Morley, J. F. White, W. A. Shannon, 
B. P. McDonald, S. A. Manlove, and Wm. Margrave 
were Vice-Presidents. 

At the Democratic Convention of Topeka, J. Thomas 
Bridgens of Fort Scott, was appointed one of the can- 
didates for Presidential Elector. 

A Republican State Convention met at Topeka on 
the 8th of September, 1864. On the first ballot for 
candidate for Governor, George A. Crawford was in the 
lead, but the opposition concentrated on Samuel J. 
Crawford, and on the sixth ballot the vote stood: Sam- 
uel J. Crawford, 51; Geo. A. Crawford, 31; and Samuel 
J. Crawford was declared the nominee. 

THE PRICE RAID. 

In October, 1864, what is called the Price Raid took 
place. General Price passed up from Arkansas through 



188 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

Central Missouri, in the direction of I^exington, on the 
Missouri river. He recruited his army as he advanced 
until he had about 20,000 effective men. General S. R. 
Curtis was at Leavenworth, in command of the Depart- 
ment of Kansas, General Curtis' s command consisted 
of part of the 14th and all of the 15th and i6th Kansas, 
a battalion of the 3rd Wisconsin, a section of the 2d 
Kansas Battery, a Colorado battery, and the 9th Wis- 
consin Battery, a total of about 4,500 men. On the 8th 
of October he proclaimed martial law, and ordered all 
the U. S. troops into the field to resist Price. Governor 
Carney called out the State Militia, and ordered them to 
the Border under General Deitzler, Major General of 
State Militia. At Fort Scott there were assembled from 
various points 1,050 men. The most of these were 
formed into the 24th Regiment of State Militia, with 
the following field and staflf officers : Colonel, Isaac 
Stadden ; Lieutenant Colonel, John Van Fossen ; Major, 
Joseph Ury; Adjutant, A. Danford ; Quartermaster, J. 
Thomas Bridgens ; Surgeons, B. F. Hepler and S. O. 
Himoe. 

The companies in the 24th Regiment were officered as 
follows : Company A, John F. White and C. B. Hay- 
ward ; Company B, W. C. Dennison and R. D. Lender ; 
Company C, J. B. Skeen, Thomas Barnes and C. B. 
Maurice ; Company D, J. C. Hinkley and Robt. Stalker ; 
Company E, H. T. Coffman, R. Adams and W. P. Gray; 
Company F, J. C. Ury, J. B, Cabiness and S. Streeter. 

Lieutenant Colonel George P. Eaves, of Uniontown, 
had a battalion of mounted men, which he raised in the 
various townships of the county, consisting of seven 



18fi4] THE PRICE RAID. 189 

companies, which had the following named officers : 
Company A, D, D. Roberts, I. Burton and C. W. Camp- 
bell ; Com.pany B, Dyer Smith, D. R. Radden and B. R. 
Wood ; Company C, John J. Stewart, John Blair and E. 
M. Marshall ; Company D, S. B. Mahurin, John Ham- 
ilton and J. C. Andrick ; Company E, B. F. Gumm, 
Nathan Baker and William GofF; Company F, Isaac 
Morris, R. S. Stevens and A. S. Potter ; Company G, 
W. A, Shannon, N. J. Roscoe and D. McComas. 

These troops were soon reinforced by militia from 
Allen and Coffey counties, under Colonel Twiss and 
Major Goss. 

With Colonel Eaves' force and all the mounted troops 
he could pick up. General Blair left for the field to join 
Blunt's division, then near Westport, Missouri. 

Generals Pleasanton and Sanborn, with about 4,000 
menhadleft Jefferson City, to join the general pursuit. 

On the 20th, 2ist and 22d, engagements took place 
respectively at Lexington, Little Blue and Big Blue. 
The Union troops were victorious. Price was rapidly 
retreating down the Missouri border, fighting almost 
continuously. He had 15,000 veteran troops, plenty 
of field artillery, and such lieutenants as Shelby, Mar- 
maduke, Cabell, Slemmon, Fagan and Graham. Price's 
army first entered Kansas in Linn county, and a part 
of it camped, on the 24th of October, just north of the 
Trading Post, on the exact spot at the base of the big 
mound near old Jackey Williams' farm, where, on that 
beautiful May day in 1858, the forerunners of this army 
of invasion had enacted the prologue of the bloody and 
disastrous scene which was to follow on the next day. 



190 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

The old gray haired General could still see on that 
hallowed ground 

"The blush as of roses 
Where rose never grew ; 
Great drops on the bunch grass 
But not of the dew." 

And in his troubled sleep that night, when the 
lights burned blue, at the dead of midnight, there may- 
have come to him the visions of those murdered men, as 

"With no vain plea for mercy, 

No stout knee was crooked; 
In the mouths of the rifles 

Right manly they looked. 
How paled the May sunshine, 

Green Marais du Cygne, 
When the death-smoke blew over 

Thy lonely ravine!" 

On the 25th of October, after a sharp skirmish, the 
rebel forces retreated to the south side of the Marais 
des Cygnes, and the entire army was brought to bay, 
and was formed in line of battle in Mine Creek Valley, 
near where now stands the City of Pleasanton. It was 
a grand field for a battle. The open prairie was four or 
five miles in extent, with only gentle undulations, and 
the entire force, as well as all the maneuvers of either 
army, could be plainly seen. The troops under Gen- 
eral Blair, Colonel Moonlight and Colonel Crawford 
were in position nearly on the left flank of the enemy, 
with Generals Pleasanton, Sanborn, McNiel and Ben- 
teen on the center and right. The engagement was 
general, and for some hours well and hotly contested. 



1864] RAIDS BY GUERILLAS. 191 

Finally, a brilliant movement was made by Colonels 
Philips and Benteen, and a brigade under General 
Cabell of nearly looo men was captured, together with 
nine pieces of artillery. Generals Marmaduke, Cabell, 
Slemmer and Graham were also taken prisoners. The 
enemy now rapidly retreated, their deflection into Mis- 
souri, to the southeast, being forced in a great measure 
by the field maneuvers of General Blair and Colonel 
Crawford. 

Another stand was made by the enemy on the Little 
Osage in Bourbon County, but McNiel and Pleasanton, 
who were in advance, soon routed them out ; and still 
another on Shiloh Creek in this county, where we 
captured two pieces of artillery. 

RAIDS BY GUERILLAS. 

On the 20th of October, just before the battle of 
Mine Creek occurred, a squad of about twenty-five 
men, belonging to the command of the old guerilla, 
Jo Shelby, struck the Osage river about the State line, 
and went up on the north side. When they got up to 
Fort Lincoln, they halted in front of the store in that 
place, owned by Knowles & Green. Andrew Stevens 
and W. H. Green were near the store door. The bush- 
whackers at once opened fire on the two men, and 
Stevens was instantly killed. Green escaped by slip- 
ping down under the river bank and making for 
the brush. Then they plundered the store and burned 
the building, and the residences of Mr. Knowles, Mr. 
Green and Mr. Hopkins, after robbing Mrs. Hopkins. 



192 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

They then crossed the river, and robbed all the families 
living as far west as Primm's and Armstrong's, and 
burned the dwellings, hay stacks, and barns belonging 
to Dick Stafford. Turning back down the Osage, and 
dividing up into squads, they killed Mr. Woodall 
and Mr. Miller. 

MARMATON MASSACRE. 

Another raid by guerrillas was made into Bourbon 
County on the 22nd of October, 1864. On Saturday 
night of that date, about midnight a company of from/ 
forty to sixty men, under command of Allen Matthews 
and Major Courcey, came up from a southern direction 
to the neighborhood of Marmaton. Before they reached 
town some of the neighboring farmers had discovered 
them and came in ahead and gave the alarm. That 
night there were about thirty Home Guards quartered 
in the church, under command of Captain Harding, 
First Ivieutenant Ramsey, and Second Lieutenant J. G. 
Roush. By order of Captain Harding these men were 
scattered out in squads of eight or ten to picket the 
several roads leading into town. In the meantime, the 
guerrillas, presuming such would be the case, left the 
main road and charged across lots into town, which they 
thus found without any defense at all. They then com- 
menced capturing every man they could get hold of, 
and firing on any they saw trying to run away. They 
first picked up Colonel Horatio Knowles, Daniel M. 
Brown, Dr. L. M. Chadwick, Joseph Stout, Abner 
McGonigle and Warren Hawkins. These men they 
murdered in the most cold-blooded manner, as fast as 



186-1] MARMATON MASSACRE. 193 

they came to them, in some instances taking hold of 
their victim with one hand and putting a bullet through 
his head from a revolver in the other. In other cases 
they would repeatedly shoot into their prisoners while 
they were down and begging for mercy. 

Nelson Ramsey, Wm. Holt, brother of Judge Holt, 
Rev. Mr. Prigmore, and others, were on the street, and 
were repeatedly fired at, but they slipped away some- 
how and hid in the deep ravines near by. 

The stores in town were those of Aitkin & Knowles, 
and Cobb & Jones. These they robbed and then 
burned. The residence of Mrs. Schoen, widow of 
Lieutenant Schoen, of Company E, loth Kansas, the 
Methodist church, and other buildings were burned. 

As soon as possible after the attack. Lieutenant Roush 
started for Fort Scott to give the alarm and get help in 
the pursuit of the ruffians. Some of them discovered 
him and gave him close chase as far as the Catholic 
Cemetery, when they probably concluded they were 
near the Fort Scott picket line, and turned back. Lieu- 
tenant Roush reported the affair to Colonel Stadden, 
who ordered out a force in pursuit, but the bush- 
whackers had too much the start, and being well 
mounted they got away. In pass'"ng out of the county, 
near Cato, they killed another m.an, a Mr. Simons, 
whom Matthews had a special grudge against. They 
then continued their flight into th:; Cherokee Nation. 

Reliable information is furnished that this Matthews 
with about twenty of his men, left soon after for the 
Rocky Mountains, going in a north-westerly direction 
into the country of the Osage Indians. At a crossing 

13 



194 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

of the Verdigris river, near where Independence now 
is, and just after they had crossed, they were met by a 
large body of Osages who informed them that the Osage 
people had orders to arrest any and all persons attempt- 
ing to pass through their country and take them to 
Fort Scott. Matthews told them they were friends of 
the tribe, but that they would never submit to be taken 
alive, especially as prisoners to Fort Scott, A battle 
then opened, and Matthews and every one of his men 
were killed. This is the statement as m^de by Little 
Bear, who was then Chief of the Osages."' 

The murders recounted in these raids were the 
most atrocious and cold-blooded of any that had ever 
occurred in Bourbon County. The men killed were 
all good, quiet, peaceable citizens, not identified in any 
way as partisans, or even active in politics, excepting 
Horatio Knowles, who had been in the Legislature 
several years, as has been noted. It was probably not 
known at the time to what particular rebel command 
these murderers belonjjed who raided the Osage vallev. 
The statement is made here that they belonged to the 
command of the rebel General Jo Shelby, although he 
was not present in person. The proof of it is given in 
the following extracts from page 447 of a book pub- 
lished in 1867 by authority of Shelby, called "Shelby 
and His Men; or War in the West." The author 
says, in speaking of these raids into Kansas : 

"No prisoners were taken, and why should there 
be? * * Shelby was leaving Kansas and taking terrible 
adieus. * * Hay stacks, houses, barns, produce, crops, 
and farming implements were consumed before the 



]864] SUSPENSE. 195 

march of his squadrons, and what the flames spared the 
bullet finished. Shelby was soothing the wounds 
of Missouri by stabbing the breast of Kansas. For 
the victims of Lane and Jeunison he demanded life for 
life and blood for blood. The interest had been com- 
pounded, but he gathered it to the utmost farthing. 
Fort Scott lay before him like a picture, mellowed 
by haze and distance, and the orders for its destruction 
had gone forth." 

And the orders for its destruction would have been 
fully carried out had it not been for the prompt organi- 
zation and assembly of the militia. 

Price had also determined on the total destruction of 
the City of Fort Scott. Marmaduke and other rebel 
officers, while prisoners of war here, repeatedly stated 
that Price had given orders for the annihilation of 
Fort Scott as soon as they could get to it. 

SUSPENSE. 

On the day of the battle of Mine Creek, and for some 
days previous, the people of Fort Scott and the troops 
here were naturally in a state of great suspense. They 
knew, indefinitely, that there had been fighting up north, 
and that Price was retreating down the border. They 
had good reason to fear the worst. They had no dispo- 
sition to cry wolf when there was no wolf, and they 
fully realized their danger if the rebel army should get 
at them, and they were nerved up to defend themselves 
to the best of their ability. They probably did not 
know at that time of the especial determination and 
order to destroy the town, but in a general way they 



196 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

knew Price and his men and his methods, and they had 
every reason to believe that he would attack and destro)^ 
Fort Scott, which was then rich in supplies and plunder. 

A part of the defensive force was posted on the hills 
north of town. Entrenchments were thrown up at the 
river fords, and preparations made for moving the women 
and children. 

About 3 o'clock on the morning of the 25th the 
cannon boomed forth the alarm. A scout had just 
arrived with the news that the enemy was at the 
Trading Post, and it was presumed that their march on 
Fort Scott would be unchecked. Every man was at 
his post, and all exhibited the coolness of veteran 
troops. The morning was rain> , but it cleared up later 
in the forenoon, Up to 3 o'clock that afternoon no 
definite news was had of the operations of the two 
armies. They could hear the boom of the cannon, but 
they did not know the result of the day. All kinds 
of rumors were flying. Late in the day large bodies 
of troops were seen marching on the city. But it was 
soon ascertained that they were Union troops under 
Colonel Moonlight. They then learned of the victory 
at Mine Creek, and that General Blair's command and 
other forces of the Union army would soon be here. 
The revulsion of feeling cannot be described. The 
tense, rigid feeling of suspense and anxiety which had 
so long held the courageous militia to their work, gave 
way to exultation and joy. 

That night Generals Curtis, Pleasanton, Blunt and 
Sanborn and their forces came in, bringing the captured 
rebel Generals and other prisoners, and the captured 



1864] PUBLIC MEETING. 197 

cannon. The next morning they again took up the 
march in pursuit of Price, except General Pleasanton 
and his command, who, after remaining a few days, left 
for St. lyouis with the prisoners and captured artillery. 
On the 28th, Colonel Stadden of the 24th regiment, 
issued the following order : 

Gen. Order No. 5. 

The Colonel commanding takes pleasure at this time 
in thanking the brave men under his command for the 
heroism and fortitude displayed during the late crisis. 
Although not actively engaged in the field, the cheer- 
fulness displayed is certainl}'^ worthy of a veteran corps. 

* * * * Ai^ain he assures you that no one will 
have occasion to blush for being a member of the "First 
Bourbon." I. Stadden, 

A. Danford, Adjutant. Colonel Commanding. 

PUBLIC MEETING. 

On the next Saturday evening a large public meeting 
was held in Fort Scott. S. A. Manlove was chosen 
President, and J. R. Morley, George Dimon, G. A. 
Reynolds, N. Z. Strong and William Margrave, Vice- 
Presidents. General Blair, who had returned to his 
post as Commandant, was called on to speak. The 
General said he was not there to make a political speech, 
as he had nothing to do with politics since the war be- 
gan, and would not have until it closed. He said he 
desired, however, to do justice to the brave men who 
had left their homes and kept in the front until Kansas 
was out of danger. He closed with a detailed descrip- 
tion of the battle g. Mine Creek, and the military 
operations along . iu. Border. 



198 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1864 

As has been stated, General Curtis continued the 
chase after the rebels, pursuing them to their final de- 
struction as an army. 

This was the last time Bourbon County was threat- 
ened by the invasion of an armed enemy, and the people 
soon settled down to some degree of peace and quiet. 

The general election was held on the 8th day of No- 
vember. Samuel J. Crawford was elected Governor and 
Sidney Clarke, Congressman; A. Danford was elected 
State Senator from Bourbon County. The Represent- 
atives were: Fiftieth District, L. D. Clevenger; Fifty- 
first, D. L. Campbell; Fifty-second, N. Griswold; 
Fifty-third, N. Z. Strong. D. M. Valentine was elected 
Judge of the Fourth Judicial District. D. B. Emmert, 
District Clerk; Wm. Margrave, Probate Judge, and 
Nelson Griswold, Superintendent of Schools. 

Bourbon County cast 960 votes for Lincoln electors 
and 126 for the McClellan electors. 

The year 1864 had been a season of more than usual 
disquietude and apprehension, in this county. Besides 
the operations of the regular Confederate armies, there 
were many roving bands of guerillas, bushwhackers 
and marauders swarming along the Missouri border, 
who took every opportunity to slip into Kansas and 
commit murder, robbery, theft and any depredation 
that took their fancy or that occasion permitted. 

The bordering section of Missouri was practically 
without law, civil or military, and these men held full 
sway in their reign of terror. This state of affairs 
continued until Price's horde was swept down the 
Border, and the last remnant of rebellion disappeared. 



1865] CITY ELECTION. ]9§ 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



LINCOLN. 



^'TPHE year 1865, while it was laden with eveius of 
^? vast import to the Nation, bore to us but few 
marked incidents of a local nature. President 
lyincoln was re-inaugurated on the 4th of March, 
and was assassinated on the 14th of April. He had, 
however, lived to see the surrender of Appomattox, 
and to smilingly approve of Grant's direction to the 
paroled army of North Virginia: "Take your horses 
and mules home, you will need them on the farm." He 
had lived to see the rebellion crushed, and to realize 
that government by the people should not perish from 
the earth. Nor will his name. He had reached the 
apex of human greatness. The Infinite fittingly or- 
dained there should be no descent. 

CITY ELECTION. 

In the spring of 1865 the regular election was held 
in Fort Scott for city officers. Isaac Stadden was 
elected Mayor. The Councilmen were A. R. Allison, 
S. A. Manlove, Charles Rubicam and J. R. Morley. 
City Marshal, H. C. Jones ; Treasurer, C. F. Drake ; 
Recorder, Wm. Margrave ; Assessor, J. W. Coutant ; 



200 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 

Street Commissioneiv C. W. Goodlander ; Attorney, 
A. Danford. 

J TiK SCHOOLS. 

Ill January, i860, S. W. Greer, Superintendent of 
Schools, made a report of the condition of the schools 
in the Territory at that date. His figures for Bourbon 
County are as follows : Number of districts organized, 
seven. Number of children between the ages of 5 and 
21, seventy-four. 

The first school district in this county was organized 
in December, 1859. It was what was afterwards Dis- 
trict No. 10. None wire organized in i860, and only 
45 v/ere organized until after the war, when in 1867 the 
organization of districts again commenced. At the 
close of 1865 ther-^ were 3,261 children of school age in 
the county. Many of these were children of refugees 
who had come in to Fort Scott from Missouri and 
Arkansas. Through the efforts of C. F. Drake, and a few 
others, school rooms were furnished and fitted up in the 
old hospital building and in the old City Hall. 

The few school buildings in the county were poorly 
furnished. The appliances were meager. There was 
nothing like uniformity in books. The children 
brought the books which had been used by their par- 
ents fifteen or twenty years before, and represented 
nearly as many different States and kinds of books as there 
were children. The daily routine was something like 
this: The reading class would form in line; one scholar 
read a verse from an old reader commencing, "Rome 
was an ocean of flame;" the next would read one about 



1865] COST OF PROVISIONS. 201 

"Lo! the Poor Indian;" the next, not having anything 
but Webster's Spelling Book, read about one of the 
pictures in the back part, where the girl failed to be 
able to buy a new dress because the cow kicked over 
the pail of milk, Ar.'i so on down the line, until the 
last one, a little fellow, read the best he could about 
the wonderful cat. 

The facilities for acquiring an education in those 
times compares but feebly with our grand institutions 
of the present day. Our trained, competent and effi- 
cient professional teachers, with the paternal aid of the 
State, have wrought a wonderful change. Working 
through our Normal Colleges and High Schools, they 
have brought our common school system wellnigh 
to perfection. Not only that, they have caused the 
word "Teacher" to take its rightful place at the head 
of the list of the learned professions. And also, like 
Abou Ben-Adhem, "of those who love their fellow- 
men, their names lead all the rest." "May their 
tribe increase." 

COST OF PROVISIONS. 

In July, 1865, J. S. Emmert, County Clerk, left among 
the records of the County an itemized account of the 
expenses of housekeeping, from which the following 
extracts are made : 

One-half bushel apples, $1.50; one dozen beets, 50 
cents; four pounds of butter, $1.25; four dozen eggs, 
$1.30; four heads of cabbage, 50 cents ; twelve pounds 
of sugar, $3.00; five pounds of coffee, $5.00; one-half 
gallon kerosene, $1.00 ; one bushel of potatoes, $2.00; 



202 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 

six bars soap, $i.oo ; two chickens, 80 cents ; one peck 
of onions, 75 cents; one-half pound tea $1.50; fifty 
pounds flour, $3.50. 

MUSTER-OUT. 

The Kansas troops had been or were being mustered 
out. Their old yellow parchments said they were 
"honorably discharged." "No objection tore-enlist- 
ment known to exist." But many of them knew there 
were objections known to exist — dressed in calico — and 
they were going to meet those objections, just as soon 
as possible. A farewell glance was given the faithful 
old camp kettles and mess pans, in which they had so 
often cooked coffee and beans and rice and desiccated 
potatoes, or the chickens and sweet potatoes, turkeys, 
and pigs, and geese, which somehow found their way 
into the company messes. They were going home. 
The orderly sergeant called the roll for the last time. 
He skipped many names on the original muster-in roll. 
Some had been discharged for wounds or other dis- 
ability; many had left their bones in one or the other 
of a dozen States from Kansas to the Sea. 

The record of Kansas in the war is grand. The State 
sent more soldiers to the war than it had voters in 1861. 
Its quota under the calls for troops was 12,931; it sent 
20,151, without conscription. Nineteen regiments and 
three batteries participated in more than a hundred 
engagements, six of which were on Kansas soil. The 
battlefields from Wilson Creek to the Gulf are conse- 
crated by their blood. Provost-Marshal-General Fry, 
in his final reports of the Union Army Roster, wrote 



1865] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 203 

this: "Kansas shows the highest battle mortality of the 
table. The same singular martial disposition which 
induced about one-half of the able-bodied men to enter 
the army without bounty may be supposed to have in- 
creased their exposure to the casualties of battle after 
they were in the service." 

The regiments and batteries had all made an honor- 
able record. In the many battles in which they were 
engaged, there were none of which they were not entitled 
by General Orders to emblazon the battle-name on the 
white stripes of "Old Glory." 

BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENT. 

The people of our county were now turning their 
attention more than ever before to the pursuits of peace. 

For ten years there had existed among our entire 
people a sense of insecurity and apprehension. It was 
an epoch of unrest, — a decade of bloody strife. No one 
on retiring to rest at night knew what might occur 
before another sun. An enemy was always in striking 
distance. They became accustomed to this state of 
affairs at times, when the recurrence of some bloody 
deed would again raise up the nightmare of border 
strife or civil war. 

But all that was at an end. The war was over, and 
the receding tide had taken with it the flotsam and jet- 
sam of border war. 

Fort Scott was rapidly improving. The "Wilder 
House" and the stone "Miller Block," opposite, had 
been built sometime, and they were classed among the 
architectural wonders of the State. 



204 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [18(55 

The Wilder House was thus named in compliment to 
A. C. Wilder, who was Congressman from this State, 
and afterwards stationed for a time ?t Fort Scott in the 
Commissary Department, and who was, also, a great 
friend of the Dimon brothers, who built the house. 
A. C. Wilder was a brother of D. W. Wilder, who is 
not only well known in Fort Scott but throughout 
the West. 

The "Miller Block" was built by Dr. J. G. Miller, 
who, as stated, was a Representative in 1865, and a 
prominent man until his death, some time afterwards. 

The military telegraph had been run down the road 
from Leavenworth in 1863, and its last months of use 
here by the military, the office was conducted by J. D. 
McCleverty as chief operator. George A. Crawford 
had erected a year before a large flouring mill of four 
run of burrs, probably the largest mill then in the State. 
Early this year he commenced the erection of a large 
woollen factory, the largest and best appointed of any 
one in the West. By fall of this year there could be 
heard the whirr of a thousand spindles, and the inter- 
mittent thump and bang of many looms. The best 
grade of merchant } arns, blankets, and woollen cloths 
were manufactured. The wheat and wool of this and 
adjoining counties were worked up here which found 
a ready market. This mill and factory were totally 
destroyed by fire on the night of November i, 1870. 
There was no insurance on this property and its loss to 
Mr. Crawford caused much financial embarrassment. It 
was also a severe blow to the city of Fort Scott. These 
mills were the pride of the town, then struggling for a 



- ^..if ^^ 




Section of Market Street, 1865. 



I 



ISfi.i] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 205 

place in the front rank of the manufacturing points in 
this State, and ambitious even then, to be rated as the 
principal city of Southern Kansas. 

The establishment of a military post at Fort Scott 
during the war was, of course, of material advantage 
to it. While much of the business was of a transitory 
nature, a very considerable amount of it was of legiti- 
mate wholesale trade, and the retail trade with the 
surrounding country was very extensive. 

Among the largest business houses at the close of 
1865 maybe noted 'he following: Dry Goods — Wilson, 
Gordon & Ray, A. McDonald & Bro., J. F. White, J. 
R. Morley & Co., Wm. Roach, Rosenfield & Co., San- 
derson & Thomas, Shannon & Seavers, A. J. Lagore, 
and Jones & Cobb. Groceries — Linn & Stadden, G. R. 
Bodine, A. Cohen, Ernich & Lender, E. M. Insley, 
Van Fossen Bros., Parker & Tomlinson, and Penning- 
ton & Secrist. Hardware — C. F. Drake and Rubicam 
& Dilworth. Bankers — A. McDonald & Bro. Book 
vStore — S. A. Manlove. Livery Stables — Beuj. Files, 
P. Clough, H. Dimon, S. A. Olds, and Chas. Walker. 
Watch Maker — D. Prager. Tailors — R. Blackett and 
J. Winter. Harness Maker — Hartman & Co. Plas- 
terer — A. Coston. Shoemaker — John Crow.. Cabinet 
Makers — S. O. Goodlander and Wm. C. Weatherwax. 
Wagon Maker — ^John A. Bryant. Blacksmiths — W. H. 
Dory, Moses Boire and C. J. Neal. Drug Stores — D. 
S. Andrick & Co. and W. C. Dennison & Co. Barbers 
— Ed. Henderson and Joe Barker. Carpenter — C. W. 
Goodlander. Masons — John Higgins and Billy Shan- 
nehan. Physicians — B. F. Hepler, J. H. Couch, J. S. 



206 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 

Redfield, S. O. Himoe, L. M. Timmonds, J. C. Van 
Pelt, etc. Lawyers — Too many, as usual. 

The rest of the fellows kept saloons. 

The principal business part of the town was then on 
Market street — called Bigler street then — and North 
Main street. A. McDonald & Bro. 's store was in a long 
one-story frame house, fronting on Scott avenue, and 
running along Wall street to the alley. The "Banking 
House" was in the rear end of it, with an entrance on 
Wall street. 

The other business houses, on Market and Main 
Streets, were all one and two story frame buildings, 
many of them but little better than board shanties. 
Most of the business houses on these streets were burned 
in the great fire of April 23, 1873. 

A very good county fair was held at Fort Scott on 
October 12, 1865. G. A. Crawford, David Gardner, 
A. Goff, and N. C. Hood, were the officers. 

The general election for 1865, was held on the 2nd 
of November. In Bourbon County D. B. Emmert was 
elected as State vSenator to fill a vacancy. The Repre- 
sentatives elected were as follows: 50th District, W. H. 
Green; 51st, J. L. Wilson; 52nd, Nelson Griswold ; 
53rd, C. W. Blair. General Blair ran against W. A, 
Shannon, a very popular republican, and was elected 
by a vote of 264, as against 145 for Shannon, 

The ruling prices of some of the staple provisions in 
the fall and winter of 1865, in the Fort Scott market 
were as follows: Wheat, $2,50 per bushel; flour, |io 
per hundred; corn meal, $2.75 per bushel; oats, $2 per 
bushel; corn, $2.50 per bushel; sugar, 2,}^ to 50c per 



1865] BUSINESS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 207 

pound; coffee, Rio, 66>4C per pound; coffee, Java, 
75c per pound; teas, 1^2.50 to $3.50 per pound; rice, 
30c per pound; molasses, $1.50 to $3 per gallon; butter, 
50c per pound; cheese, 40c per pound; eggs, 60c per 
dozen; potatoes, $4 to $4.50 per bushel; turnips, $2 per 
bushel; green apples, $3.50 to %\ per bushel; dried 
apples, $5 per bushel. 

In the summer of 1865 the Kansas & Neosho Valley 
Railroad Company was organized at Kansas City, Mo. 
The initial point of this road was to be at Kansas City. 
The Southern terminus and direction was undetermined. 
Official communication was opened with our County 
Board with a view to having Bourbon County take 
$150,000 in stock of the Company. After some cor- 
respondence the Board finally required that the name 
of Fort Scott be incorporated in the name of the 
Company and road, and suggested "Missouri River, 
Fort Scott & Gulf" as such name. The Company 
at once agreed to make the change, and at a meeting 
on November i8th, the Board ordered an election to be 
held on the i6th day of December, 1865, on the question 
of voting $150,000 in county bonds. The election 
resulted as follows : Osage Township voted 41 for, 
none against; Freedom 65 for, 4 against; Timberhill 
49 for, 33 against; Franklin 4 for, 87 against; Marion 
17 for, 67 against; Marmaton 36 for, 29 against; Scott 
493 for, none against. Total, 705 for, and 220 against. 
And the first preliminary struggle for a railroad through 
Bourbon County was over. This road was completed 
to Fort Scott in the fall of 1869. 

In November, 1865, County Assessor, Mr. E. Brown, 



208 HIS TOR Y OF BOURBON CO UN TV. 1 1 SG5 

made his official returns, from which the following 
figures are taken: 

Population — White males, 4,954; white females, 
4,282; black males, 379; black females, 418. Total 
population of the county, 10,033. Fort Scott con- 
tained about 1,800 inhabitants, who were actual citi- 
zens. The total valuation, real and personal, (which 
the assessor returned together) of the entire county, 
was $1,442,687.00. During the fiscal year of 1865 
there was harvested and manufactured the amounts and 
articles following : Wheat harvested, 28,676 bushels. 
Rye, 3,621; Corn, 206,297; Oats, 15,352. Irish pota- 
toes, 5,591; sweet potatoes, 821. Butter, 14,498 lbs. 
Cheese, 11,907 pounds. Sorghum molasses, 7,606 
gallons. Hay, 15,565 tons. Total number of acres 
of laud fenced ,34,344. 

Acres of land improved, 25,687. Number of horses, 
2,702; num.ber of mules, 301; number of milch cows, 
3,630; number of oxen, 603; number of other cattle, 
5,209; numberof sheep, 6,345; number of swine, 2, 638. 
Value of live stock, $476,295. 

The population of the county had increased about 
4,000 since the enumeration of i860. 

There was no census, even approximate, of the popu- 
lation (yf Fort Scott in 1865. There was a large "float- 
ing population" of refugees and indiscriminate and 
indescribable people, white and black, who had, prac- 
tically, no home or residence anywhere, to the number 
of 1,000 or more. The actual number of bona fide 
citizens was probably less than 1,800. The tax roll 
of the city bears less than 400 names. 



1865] THE CLOSE. 209 

THE CLOSE. 

The close of the year 1865, is deemed the fitting 
period to close this volume of the History of Bourbon 
County. It is the closing point of an Era. Old "Time" 
here rested his scythe for a moment, and turned the 
sand in his glass. 



A final tribute should be paid to our men and women, 
one and all, the living and the dead, who came to this 
county in early times to help found a State. 

They sacrificed all the established comforts of their 
homes in the old States to found new homes in this 
semi-wilderness. They came with no misunderstanding 
as to the state of the country or the political and social 
conditions. They came with their eyes wide open, 
each well knowing that his life here, for many years, 
must be and would be a life of hardship, self-denial and 
danger. As a class, they were a superior people ; 
superior in that stamina of character ; superior in that 
native manhood and womanhood which goes to make 
up the "salt of the earth." Poor they were in purse, 
but rich in integrity of purpose. 

At the old fireside, a young man, "the flower of the 
flock," the one widest between the eyes, stood out from 
the family circle and said : "Sis, pack my carpet-bag, 
I'm going to Kansas." "Sis" was probably to follow 
as soon as a certain young man had a cabin and ten 
acres of sod corn. 

And so they came. Sometimes one, alone, sometimes 
the entire family. 

14 



210 HISTORY OF BOURBON COUNTY. [1865 

Many have passed over to the other side. Many 
have reached what the man of Avon called the "chair 
age." A few are still in the vigor of life. All passed 
through a life's experience such as will come to no 
other people. They all played a part in that grand 
drama which closed the heroic epoch in politics and 
war. They watched, step by step, the political legis- 
lation, and the unfolding, like the bloom of the deadly 
night-shade, of the divergent sentiments among the 
people of the two great Sections. They saw the result- 
ing partisan strife, of which Bourbon County was the 
storm-center, and the culmination in bloody civil war. 
They saw the primal cause — that exudation from the 
dark ages — go down forever on the very spot of its 
origin, "the Plantations on the river James." They 
saw the wayward sisters, as from a pathway through a 
burning forest, emerge into the sunlight. They saw 
civilization, — cradled on the rock of Sinai and crowned 
on the rock of Plymouth, — plant here another guidon 
under the rising battle-smoke of 1865. 



THE END. 



Ks" 



:a^ yr ^ £=^ < ^ 



J. F. GOTTRELL, 



WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 






^^UMJ^ 



SteitionGr 

^^WALL PAPER DEALER, 

ISlo. 6 fioPth ]\«ain Street, 

pipst Doof flofth of Opera J4ouse, 

FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 



j^ 






m^ t-^. "^ 



■^ 



-V- ESTABLISHED 1865. 



^W 



DEHIiHH If* POlJiSHHD 



Plate arid WiridewBlass 

WAlili PAPER, 

Wiodow Shades, Paints, Oils and Varnisli, 



--^•-^K^-^-- 



^-^«-.>— 207 Wall Stt^eet. 



Established 1869. -^-^(^"^t- Incorporated 1888. 

W. H STOUT, President. R. J. HARRIS, Vice-Pres-t. W. H. FOX, Sec. & Treas. 



THE FORT SCOTT 



GRfllNtlMPLEMENT COMPANY 



(SueoeesoPS to DOFJi^EE & STOUT,) 



il IlIIDklI?21ll8, 



CARRIAGES, BUGGIES, 

GRAIN AND SEEDS.' 

FORT SCOTT, - KANSAS. 



John Glunz, 



WHOI^ESAI^E DEAI,ER IN 



, » UEBT « 



Saddlery, Shoe Leather and Fiuding. 

Manufacturer of H7MARKETST., 

nonsH couuRHS. \J^ I Q£3 FORT SCO TT, KANSAS. 







5, rtunter, 

PRESCRIPTION DRUGGIST, 



AflD 



MaDuiacturer ol Well Rdowd 



Pharmaceutical Preparations and Proprietary Remedies. 

DRUGS, CHEMICALS, 

Perfumery and Toilet Articles of Every Description, and Physicians' Supplies. 

Corner Main and Wall Streets, 

FORT SCOTT. KANSAS. 



FOflT SCOTT FyemfiE COMPMiy, 

Nos. 10, 12 fP 14 Scott Avenue. 

Furniture ^ Undertaking. 

Carrying the Largest and 
Best Selected iStock of 

MEDIUM AND HI&H GRADE FUEITDRE 

In this Section. Buying all goods in car load lots for CASH 

enables us to undersell all competitors. We can sell 

Furniture at same price it costs small dealers, and 

Guarantee to Save You at Least 20 per Cent. 






^^^ 



Undertaking 
Department. 



(Uii 



%, 






Scientific Embalming. 

COFFINS AND CASKETS,^^- 

-= IroD, Metallic, Copper and Zinc. 

SHROUDS, ROBES, Etc. 

A complete equipment of Hearses, Pall Bearers' Wagonette , 
Carriages, Hacks and Undertaker' s Wagons. 

No Extra Charge for Hearses in the Country, 



This Department is under the direct supervision of C. W. Good- 
lander, Jr., — 18 years practical experience in this city and adjacent 
territory. 



CHAN. B. CMPBELL 
Insurance 

lioans. 



flfiD 



• • • 



FIIE, LIGHTNING, CYCLONE, HAIL,____^ 
WIND STORM, PLATE GLASS, LIFE AND ACCIDENT. 

All classes of Insurance at equitable rates. 

Loans promptly made on Farm and City Property. 

All kinds of Conveyancing and Notarial work done. 
Rents collected and properties cared for. 

Call and see me when you want business in my line. 

FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 



D. PRAGER, 







CM^ 




©'^if'^llff'W 



UNION BLOCK. 



No. 18 fflaifl Street, - FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, 



C. C. pBIiSOr*. • W. p. SMITH. 

C. C. NELSON & CO., 

LOANS. 

Lsaas Proitlj Neptiated on Farm M City Properly. 



Low Rales of Meresl aofl Easy Paymeils on Priicipal. 



Office 

Km 



.112 E. First Street, FORT SCOTT, KANSAS, 



J. V. DABBS, 

The Old Reliable 




n ^ ^ ^ 



GHOUflD FliOOH STUDIO. 

New Process Portraits, Crayon Portraits, 

Water Coiored Portraits, Frames and Mouldings, 

Colored Pictures, Photogravures. 
207 Market Street, - - f-ORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 



1858. 



1894. 



Pioneer Lumber Vard 



C. W. GOODLANDER, 



.DEALER IN. 



Sash, Doors, Blinds, Cement, Llme^::^ 

— = A11 Kines of Bnilding Material. 

Port Scott, Kansas, Arcadia, Kansas, Unicntown, Kansas, Garland, Kansas, 
Bronson, Kansas, Liberal, Mo. 



^ 
^=^ 



-fe-> 



mm 



^ < s 



W. A. C08T0N. 



No. 103 South Main Street, 
FORT SCOTT. 



KANSAS. 



-^ 







H. L PAGE L^^ GO. 



DEALERS IN 



ALL KINDS OF VEHICLES. 

They buy direct from the manufac- 
turers, therefore are able and do give 
their customers the benefit of as low 
prices on all the different grades and 
styles of vehicles, as can be had of 
any dealer in the State. They carry a 
large stock of 

Spring Wagons, Phaetons, 

Biiggies, Road Wagons. 

Also, a fine line of Harness. They 
sell the celebrated BAIN WAGON, 



Their long experience enables 
them to select from the different 
factories the best articles made lor 
Farm JIachinery. Their NEW 
IDEAI, MOWER, with ball ad 
roller bearing journals, serrated 
ledger plates, is without doubt tht- 
best Mower now made. 




No. i Market Square, 



TlieNcTV Deering 

Pony Binder, 

With ball and roller bearing. 

Fort Scott, Kanass. 




Warn Hardware Co., 



DEALERS IN 



HARDWARE, 

Cutlery, Stoves and Tinuuare, 

21 SOUTH MAIN STREET. 

JAVOBITE STOVES AND RANGES, 



AGENTS FO 



The most durable, convenient, economical and best operating Stoves 
and Ranges sold in this city or county. 



1B71, 



1834, 



H. BROWN, 








PINE TAILORING A SPEGIALI!, 



NO. 211 MARKET STREET. 

Fort Scott, - Kgir|sgis. 



T. W> Tallman Lumtei" Cofnpanf, 



DEALERS IBT 



M 



liUjWBER, 



^ 

» 



New and Complete Stock of Builders' and Plasterers' 
Material Always on Hand. 

Yards, Cor. National Ave. and Third St., 
Opposite Court House, » ; • > w "^ 

FORT SCOTT, KANS. 



I870. 



1894. 



OFFICE OF THE 



Fort Scott Marble aod Gfaoite Wofks, 



Cor. Third and 
^^Main Streets. 



M. E, FARNSWORTH, 

Proprietor. 

dealer ir) Quirjcy, IBarre, Clark's Island, ©ak 
Hill, Hallowell, Concord, "©lack Oiarrjond, ped 
■^each) ar)d "©ay of Furjdy @rar)ites. Irrjportep 
of Scotch ©rarjite, Statuary Figures, Italiar) 
Njarble and Finished Njonurrjerjts. 

COKRESPONDING OFFICES : 

Aberdeen, Scotland, . . . and . . . Carrara, Italy. 

All communicatious should be addressed -, ..i ii]r/%i^«%x> itir ~ -^ -^^ _. ^ ^ 
and remittances made to I. W. ^VIOODY, f/lSinSlQeV. 

All parties desiring work in our line would do well to call and see our stock and 
C3-ET OXJE/ FZEtTCES, 



C. W. GOODLANDER, President. C. H. OSBUN, Vice Pres't. C. B. McDONALD, Cashier. 

ORGANIZED IN 1884. 






f 



If 






Citizens 

flational 
Bank. 






PAID DP CAPITAL, $100,000. ADTHORIZED CAPITAL, $300,000. 



T\\ vs«/^+ (^*^pl T.W.Tallman,G,W. Katzung, W. P. Dilworth, C. W.Goodlander.C. H. 
JJircCLOro. Osbun.F. M. Brickley, B. P. McDonald, Leo I. Stadden, W. C. Perry. 

Bank on Main Street, FORT SCOTT, KANSAS. 



(W 



o 



DRY GOODS, NOTIONS, 
KID GLOVES, 
CLOAKS, 



J£>-> 



Complete Line of Seasonable Goods 

AT ALL TIMES, 
Can be pound at ouf Store. 

GOODSELL, CALHODN k CO. 



DAVID F. COON, 

President. 



J. J. STEWART, JAS. R. COI^EAN, 

Vice President. Cashier, 



The State Bank, 

COR. OF MAIN AND FIRST STREETS, 

FORT SCOTT, KANSAS- 



Capital, 



$100,000. 



X)TiaECTOE,S. 



C. H. Haynes, 
John H. Mead, 
W. H. Harris, 



C. C. Grain, J. J. Stewart, 

Thornton Ware, D. F. Coon, 

Henry J. Butler, Jas. R. Colean. 



Druggist, 

FORT SCOTT, KANS. 



The Best is the Ctieapest! 



Prescriptions 

Filled 

at all hoars : 

Day 

or 

Night. § 



Ouality Pays! 

We Jiandleonly 
reliable , floods of 
the best wakes, 
and sell them at 
prices as low as 
may be consist- 
ent with good 
quality. 



TOILET 

ARTICLES, 
PEEFUMES, 

BRUSHES, 
COMBS. 

MIREORS. 



C. E. HALL, Druggist, 



112 S. MAIN STREET. 



C. p. Dt^ni^B, CHAS. riHIiSOH. C. p. fHAI^Tirl, 

Ppesldent. Vise Pfesldent, Casbiep, 



ORGANIZED UNDER STATE LAW. 



Tie Bail li Firt Sci 



ESABLiSHED, 1881. 



Paid-up Capital, ^ $125,000, 



111 WALL STREET, 



FORT SCOTT. 



KANSAS, 



idie,ecto:rs. 



C. F DRAKE, CHAS. NELSON, C.F.MARTIN, 

J.H.RANDOLPH, J. F. COTTRELL. 




■^Jjlpm^f^^.-^ 



